Hacker News Reader

Texas, the state being discussed here, is generally touted as a free-market success story, without having an actual free market.

EDIT: Typo, correct 'marker' to 'market'.

The difference is that Texas isn't actively writing these laws today. States like Cali and Mass are passing new laws to create barriers to entry.

The car dealer, alcohol and sex laws are all from a long time ago. The alcohol and sex laws are being changed rapidly here.

If only place Texas politics gets really weird is with education and schoolbooks where a small, vocal group concentrates its effort.

I'm in Ohio and I can (and do) buy directly from the brewery, from single bottles to full barrels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-tier_(alcohol_distributio...

Which, of course, does not apply legally since March 22, 2012[1] and has not been enforced for as long as I can remember.

[1] http://www.com.ohio.gov/liqr/docs/liqr_HB243highlights2012.p...

If you talk to a Pennsylvanian about it, chances are they will tell you about how they have "Communist liquor" (and yes, the "communist" word there has all the negative connotations you might expect from such a rural state).

I suppose Pennsylvania does not quite have that same 'exceptionalist' attitude as Texas does.