Lewis Black once said that it’s much cheaper to drink in Wisconsin than in New York City. Airfare included. Well there’s a good reason why, and it might surprise you.
For years Jimmy Carter has always been an easy punchline to a joke, because he was known as the Worst President Ever. (That was, of course, before recent history discovered someone who could break his record.) But there comes a time in every man’s life, when you need to ignore the mistakes time has corrected, and look at the positive things he’s done.
Daniel Bier over at The Foundation for Economic Education did just that. In a recent article he outlined some of Jimmy’s accomplishments, for which anyone who regularly uses airports and beer should be grateful.
And despite his personal big government sympathies, Carter’s most lasting legacy is as the Great Deregulator. Carter deregulated oil, trucking, railroads, airlines, and beer.
When I was growing up, beer pretty much tasted the same. Like Pepsi and Coke. People were loyal to their brands, but unless you sprung for an import, there really wasn’t much variety. Today, the nation is ripe with micro breweries, and comes in more flavors than ice cream.
In 1978, the USA had just 44 domestic breweries. After deregulation, creativity and innovation flourished in the above-ground economy. Today, there are 1,400 American breweries. And home brewing for personal consumption is also now legal.
Meanwhile, the nation has become more mobile. Airlines were once something only for rich people and emergencies, but today the prices are sometimes unbelievable. In fact, just last week, Frontier Airlines was offering flights for a buck, which is actually less than the cost of a beer.
So the next time you lift a local IPA, you might want to toast the man who made it possible.