A small step, but one in the right direction. The Michigan Senate has denied the beer and wine wholesalers a monopoly on the distribution of wine to consumers, restaurants, and retailers. Such a monopoly would have served no one’s interest except fattening the wallets of wholesalers at the expense of Michigan residents who purchase wine. Worse, the monopoly would have likely forced many of West Michigan’s smaller wineries out of business, because a significant portion of their sales come from shipping direct instead of through a middleman. So the end result of a wholesaler monopoly would have been you get to pay more for less choice. As a consequence of the senate’s action, you can now buy wine directly from any winery in the country.
As I said, a small thing, but a good thing. Perhaps now our politicians can look at busting up other monopolies, like letting groups other than the teachers union bid on public school teaching contracts. (See Friday's article, which touches upon this.) Now that would stir up real competition that would not only save the taxpayers money, but also connect the performance of teachers to the real world the rest of us in the private sector have to measure up to.
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