The primary justification for government regulation of the economy is to address a market failure. As the argument goes, the smelter bears no direct costs by polluting the air, so it is necessary for the government to come in and regulate the activity. With that in mind, I am at a loss to see the market failure that these proposed new regulations in Senate Bill 412 would address. We can all agree that there should be some government regulation of the alcohol industry: age limits, driving-while-intoxicated laws, basic liquor licenses, and more. However, I think that preventing a producer from having even a small interest in a distributor goes way too far, as do the rest of these proposed legislative changes. Producers should be able to have the same freedom to get their product in front of final consumers as any other business.
