Repeal the entire Progressive Movement
While it is marvelous that Wisconsin's minimum markup law has been struck down (with respect to gasoline prices), the grounds leave much to be desired. It was struck down only because the state failed to adequately monitor the market.
With that in mind, let us recall the words of the great Justice McReynolds, dissenting in Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 54 S.Ct. 505, 524 (1934), when the majority upheld a state statute setting a minimum price for retail milk at 9 cents per quart:
"Not only does the statute interfere arbitrarily with the rights of the little grocer to conduct his business according to standards long accepted-complete destruction may follow; but it takes away the liberty of 12,000,000 consumers to buy a necessity of life in an open market. It imposes direct and arbitrary burdens upon those already seriously impoverished with the alleged immediate design of affording special benefits to others. To him with less than 9 cents it says: You cannot procure a quart of milk from the grocer although he is anxious to accept what you can pay and the demands of your household are urgent! A superabundance; but no child can purchase from a willing storekeeper below the figure appointed by three men at headquarters! And this is true although the storekeeper himself may have bought from a willing producer at half that rate and must sell quickly or lose his stock through deterioration. The fanciful scheme is to protect the farmer against undue exactions by prescribing the price at which milk disposed of by him at will may be resold!"
With that in mind, let us recall the words of the great Justice McReynolds, dissenting in Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 54 S.Ct. 505, 524 (1934), when the majority upheld a state statute setting a minimum price for retail milk at 9 cents per quart:
"Not only does the statute interfere arbitrarily with the rights of the little grocer to conduct his business according to standards long accepted-complete destruction may follow; but it takes away the liberty of 12,000,000 consumers to buy a necessity of life in an open market. It imposes direct and arbitrary burdens upon those already seriously impoverished with the alleged immediate design of affording special benefits to others. To him with less than 9 cents it says: You cannot procure a quart of milk from the grocer although he is anxious to accept what you can pay and the demands of your household are urgent! A superabundance; but no child can purchase from a willing storekeeper below the figure appointed by three men at headquarters! And this is true although the storekeeper himself may have bought from a willing producer at half that rate and must sell quickly or lose his stock through deterioration. The fanciful scheme is to protect the farmer against undue exactions by prescribing the price at which milk disposed of by him at will may be resold!"
posted by David Ziemer at 12:57 PM
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