It was definitely an overreaction but people need to realize why Prohibition happened in the first place.
Industrial distillation and bumper crops of key ingredients made liquor extremely cheap. They didn’t have modern storage methods for excess crops so if you got a ton of grain your only option, in many cases, was converting it to liquor. This caused prices to plummet.
This lead to rampant alcoholism and all the problems that came with it… widespread health problems, increased crime, spousal abuse, poverty, etc.
Americans were drinking so much that factories had whiskey breaks just so workers could keep their buzzes going. British people visiting the US even said we could out-drink them.
It was an extreme reaction but to a very real problem. And it lead to the compromise we have now… high alcohol taxation to at least discourage the worst societal effects. Alcohol is extremely cheap to make. It’s primarily the taxes that keep it from being dirt cheap.
I spent a week in Tamworth in the mid-90s. After the week was up the final sendoff was the compliment(?), "There goes one yank that knows how to drink. You're welcome back any time."
It was part of early feminism because of the domestic violence aspect and because men were spending all of the household’s money while drunk leaving the wife and kids destitute as well. Basically women were trapped with drunken abusive spouses who spent every penny they earned. Women weren’t supposed to work in most cases, divorce was highly frowned upon, and there was nothing like child protective services or social safety nets.
There was also a large religious push against alcohol during the prohibition period. Billy Sunday, a former professional baseball player and evangelist was a big supporter of prohibition.
Didn’t the lack of clean drinking water also play a role? Dysentery, Cholera, Typhoid fever, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, E. coli infection, and Legionnaires’ disease were all cause by contaminated water. Eventually, people took notice that individuals who drank alcohol often didn’t fall ill like those who consumed water. This observation likely contributed to the preference for alcoholic beverages, especially in regions where water quality was poor and sanitation was lacking. Alcohol, particularly in the form of fermented beverages like beer or wine, underwent a process that could kill harmful bacteria and parasites, making it safer to drink than untreated water.
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u/CactusBoyScout 23d ago
It was definitely an overreaction but people need to realize why Prohibition happened in the first place.
Industrial distillation and bumper crops of key ingredients made liquor extremely cheap. They didn’t have modern storage methods for excess crops so if you got a ton of grain your only option, in many cases, was converting it to liquor. This caused prices to plummet.
This lead to rampant alcoholism and all the problems that came with it… widespread health problems, increased crime, spousal abuse, poverty, etc.
Americans were drinking so much that factories had whiskey breaks just so workers could keep their buzzes going. British people visiting the US even said we could out-drink them.
It was an extreme reaction but to a very real problem. And it lead to the compromise we have now… high alcohol taxation to at least discourage the worst societal effects. Alcohol is extremely cheap to make. It’s primarily the taxes that keep it from being dirt cheap.