The easy answer may not be the right answer
By Ben Bright July 4, 2020
There is no denying that the world around us is a mess.
This new year brought us a global pandemic and unprecedented economic woes for this generation. We have had calls to shut down the country to protect our citizens’ health, and then outcries to reopen. Then, after the tragic death of George Floyd, we have had ongoing protests to fight against racial injustice.
All of these have come on top of a much-anticipated presidential election quickly approaching this November. Every day it seems a new crisis appears and adds to the chaos that has been 2020.
And with every new challenge, we seek answers.
Most of us quickly look at an issue and develop our own reasoning as to what is happening. Often, this reasoning is based on the most obvious and “easy” answer to what has occurred. However, the world is not “easy” and the answers to the issues currently plaguing society are definitely not simple. What may look to be straightforward usually has a host of other issues that make it much more complicated than it seems.
When Southwestern Pennsylvania went to the green phase of the state’s reopening plan, many took this as a return to normalcy. However, the recent surge in cases locally has shown that this may have been premature, resulting in neighboring Allegheny County banning the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants except for “to-go” services. This has upset many and has led to accusations of why the sudden surge in cases, with many taking the “easy” out and blaming the mass gatherings surrounding the Black Lives Matter protests.
But are the protests really to blame?
In April there were several protests statewide with groups calling for Gov. Tom Wolf to reopen the state, however, there have been very few cases of COVID-19 that have been associated with these previous gatherings. And while the recent BLM protests have generally been much larger, and much more numerous, there have likewise been very few new cases linked to the actual protests.
The Allegheny County Health Department, in their contact tracing of the new cases, has stated that the largest number of cases came from people – mostly young adults – visiting bars in the South Side and Oakland areas of Pittsburgh. They also found a number of cases of local residents who have traveled to Florida, where they have recorded some of the largest totals of COVID-19 cases in the country.
And the argument that beaches and protests are the same also does not hold water.
The beaches themselves should be relatively safe while wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. However, the associated nightlife near the beaches for the young adult crowd, similar to Pittsburgh’s South Side, would be an area of extreme high risk for the contagion. While it seems like the “easy” answer would be to blame the large gatherings that have been happening all around the state, the data behind the recent surge does not support this.
Another topic that has recently garnered attention in Washington County is that of privatizing the state-run liquor stores. State Rep. Tim O’Neal, R-South Strabane, has stated that he will be introducing legislation to privatize the Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores in the state. His primary reasons for wanting to privatize the sale of wine and spirits is the effect on the consumer because of the shutdown of the stores during the early stages of the COVID-19 shutdown in the state, and the money that would be saved by decreasing funding for the PA Liquor Control Board.
These claims seem valid, and look to be an “easy” solution to the problem, but they do not hold up under scrutiny.
In 2011 the state of Washington passed an initiative to privatize their state-run liquor stores. But many voters have changed their minds and would not vote for it again if given the opportunity. Since the change, the number of liquor stores in the state has grown five-fold, from 330 to more than 1600. An increase of private liquor stores to our communities of this magnitude would be extremely concerning as a public safety issue, increasing opportunities for underage drinking and other social problems.
The more than 600 Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores in Pennsylvania currently profit more than $600 million annually which is added to the state’s General Fund.
Privatizing puts this profit into question.
And with decreased income, the state legislature could look to increase taxes to make up for any shortfall. Again in the state of Washington, increased taxes after privatization have led to a 15% increase in the prices of alcohol. There is nothing in Rep. O’Neal’s initial plans for privatization that would address this issue.
Our liquor stores also supply our local residents with good-paying jobs backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union 1776. These union-supported jobs, and the benefits that the employees earn, seem to be what is really under attack by O’Neal and the Republicans.
We should be looking to add more good-paying jobs to the county, not take them away.
The recent spike in Coronavirus cases in Southwestern Pennsylvania and the current push to privatize our state’s Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores seem like they have little in common. However they both have an “easy” narrative that is actually much more complex than most people realize.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
Ben Bright is chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee.