Eighteenth Amendment Effects

Jackson D.
Despite the overwhelming expectations for the eighteenth amendment to repair America and slay the problems plaguing it, people were crestfallen when the fingernail of austerity scraped away the gilded layer of the presumably hallowed doctrine, revealing the lead core that was the eighteenth amendment’s effects on the American society. In 1920 the U.S prohibited the sale and production of alcohol and the purpose of it was to lower crime rates, lower tax burden of prisons, solve social problems such as domestic abuse, stimulate the economy, reduce corruption , and improve overall health and hygiene in America. In the end it did the exact opposite of all the goals listed above. In fact the prohibition was and still is one of the biggest
In reality it did the exact opposite and crushed the economy. With the removal of taxable alcohol, distilleries, bars and breweries from the economy, a lot of revenue and jobs were lost. “The federal government lost valuable excise revenue to the two to some 11 billion dollars.” (Andrews). Keep in mind this is when a teacher made $1000 a year. Compared to today, eleven billion dollars is roughly one hundred fifty billion dollars. With less people being employed, less people had money to buy things like the new influx of consumer goods appearing during the “roaring twenties” which meant less of them were being made and their prices went up. Eventually people working at the factories making the consumer goods lost their jobs and the companies employing those workers went out of business. As for the restaurants that the government predicted to be now bustling with sober, happy customers, they too suffered greatly from the depression. Most people went to restaurants to eat and drink (alcohol). Eventually restaurants shut down because they couldn’t stay in business without the revenue they gained from alcohol. Another thing that put restaurants out of business were speakeasies. Also known as blind pigs or blind tigers,
Organized crime increased so much after the prohibition was instituted because of the supply and demand for booze. Where there is a demand for a product, there will always be someone willing to take the risk to supply that product for the demander in order to make money. This is precisely what happened during the prohibition era. Bootleggers and gangsters like Al Capone saw a way to make easy money and started to produce and sell illegal alcohol on the streets. As stated above, this alcohol was sold in speakeasies and wasn’t taxed by the government, but by the gangsters and bootleggers who sold and produced the alcohol. The idea of crime rates going down before the prohibition seemed like a completely plausible effect of the 18th amendment and was what most people thought would happen. However during the prohibition, the idea of lowered crime rates seemed like a preposterous idea to even think about. During the Prohibition Era, “according to a study of 30 major U.S. cities, the number of crimes increased 24% between 1920 and 1921.” (Thornton). A large portion of a bootleggers job was surprisingly made easier by loophole ridden eighteenth amendment. One example of a loophole in the eighteenth amendment was that “Jews, like Italian Catholics and others, were able to produce, sell, and consume sacramental wine as part of their