Re: Where is everybody?


"comadreja" <comadreja-t@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:comadreja-t-B99924.11015028022007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <45e5b82a$0$15781$afc38c87@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"JonesieCat" <Long Ago & Far Away> wrote:

What is there to do in Sacramento?

Sacramento is closer than the Bay Area to two things found in Paradise:
Skiing and Nevada Hookers. :-)

What is to do in Sacramento? lose weight by living there in the summer,
it is a natural sauna.. Deal with California's version of the NRA: the
Wine Institute.

Hang on. How far from skiing is Sacramento? And what's The Wine Inst?
jc

North Lake Tahoe is around 100-115 miles away from Sacramento. South
Lake Tahoe and the Nevada Stateline is around 100 miles.

So close, wow.

The Wine Institute is a trade and lobbying group of Wine Producers,
mainly from California, but they could have members from other states as
well. They are based in San Francisco, but they have offices in
Sacramento and Washington DC. Like any successful lobbying group, they
know how to obstruct, dilute legislation that regulates alcohol and
especially wine, like labels for all the ingredients in wine. (some can
cause allergic reactions to people with egg and fish allergies) They
also know how to reward friends and severely punish enemies in the
California Legislature. God forbid a state politician trying to raise
the state tax on wine in California. They are a very effective lobbying
group, and as wine sales has doubled in the past decade or two, become
even more powerful. On the US Federal Level, internet wine sales are
another of their main concern for no regulation.

They are not evil like the tobacco companies, but like other powerful
lobbying groups, they know how to work the system to protect their
interests. Their concerns are not the same at times as consumer safety
or consumer rights concerns. They are an incredibly powerful lobbying
group in Sacramento.

http://www.cspinet.org/booze/taxguide/StateRankHL.pdf
page 2 of the pdf. When I was a kid in CA, it use to be around two
cents per gallon.

Ah, lobbyists for the big interest groups are incredibly powerful aren't
they? At least in the U.S. that is more visible than here, sometimes easy to
think such organised & powerful lobbying doesn't go on here, but I'm sure it
does, proportionate to the size of the self-interest of the corp bodies. And
self-interest if the name of the game in all that, any concern for the
consumer, well, that's not really what they're there for is it? That link is
interesting to look at. No wonder my bro in WI can get his wine cheaper in
Chicago than close to home. And he can get certain Aussie wines cheaper than
we can! I bet those same Calif wine lobby groups would like to make that
kind of pricing disappear, and replaced with much larger import duties.

jc


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