The Consequences of Prohibition Essay - 580 Words

The Consequences of Prohibition On the midnight of 28th October 1919, importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquor came to a halt in America. Possessing substances above the 0.5% alcohol limit was illegal. This was Prohibition. This Eighteenth Amendment was meant to have reduced the consumption level, consequently to have reduced death rates, poverty and principally crime, in the USA. Yet this had quite the opposite effect. The .Act led to even more damage, death and destruction. Many would believe Prohibition was the source of explosive growth of organized crime, as a result the amount of alcohol consumption dramatically increased. The Federal†¦show more content†¦The swindlers, also known as bootleggers set up 100,000’s of illegal ‘speakeasies’ in Chicago alone and worked along the lines of â€Å"intimidation, blackmail†, bribery and homicide. These businesses, often hidden in basements, office buildings, and anywhere that could be found became straightforward for customers to lay hands on hard liquor. On the other hand, the Bootleggers smuggled liquor from oversees and Canada, stole it from government warehouses, and produced their own. The bootlegging business had become so extensive that the laws were flagrantly violated by gangsters, commoners and even sly government officials who had formed â€Å"corrupt alliances† with the mobsters, hence making it impossible to prevent immense quantities of liquor from en tering the country. The industry turned-over large amounts of profit, promoting more gangsters to become involved in the illegal money making business. As a result of this very profitable businesses in the illegal industry, there was much rival between gangs. This is emphasized in source 5, â€Å"underworld gangs set out to control the illicit liquor business† The profit motive caused many violent outrages and cold blooded mass murders, the worst being St. Valentine’s Day massacre, which was ordered by Al Capone, The most powerful and infamous bootlegger.Show MoreRelatedUnintended Consequences of Prohibition1537 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The law of unintended consequences is what happens when a simple system tries to regulate a complex system. The political system is simple; it operates with limited information (rational ignorance), short time horizons, low feedback, and poor and misaligned incentives. Society in contrast is a complex, evolving, high-feedback, incentive-driven system . 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