TO THE EDITOR:
When I saw that the article about North Carolina liquor stores, “State considering alcohol reforms” (Jan. 15), was subtitled “Liquor prices could go up with privatization of sales,” I had a feeling that it would be biased and completely unsupported. As it stands, the only thing that the article even said about prices in relation to privatization was that they could change, failing even to support that statement.
The way I understand it, monopolies (like the one that our state has on liquor sales) keep prices high while competition drives prices down. The article does admit that privatization would greatly increase the number of places that you can purchase liquor (increasing competition). Under what pretense does this correlate with an increase in the sales price of liquor?
Absolutely nothing in the article backed up the bold words at the beginning of the story, which said “Liquor prices could go up with privatization of sales.”
If you are going to make statements from left field, I would appreciate an attempt to support them, or at least conceal them in the body of the article.
If you do have some facts that you mistakenly left out, I would love to hear them. I fear that this is just another example of biased writing in favor of big government, and the current abhorrent monopoly that the state has on our booze.
Aaron Johnston
Senior
Environmental Science
