Matthew Yglesias: “Alcoholic beverages are subject to special excise taxes in virtually every American state, but there’s little policy rhyme or reason to how they vary.”
“It looks like American legislators as a whole simply aren’t all that thoughtful about how they are designing these taxes. The mere fact that taxes are levied on quantities of beer or spirits rather than on quantities of alcohol speaks to a failure to really consider the issues in a public health framework.”
Excellent Graphs! Now I have empirical data to support my hypothesis.