What effect did Prohibition have on the Roaring Twenties?

[AceNZ]

What effect did Prohibition have on the Roaring Twenties?

1. It empowered a new type and class of criminals and gangs, with much more power and money than they ever had before.
2. It corrupted government at all levels.
3. It made many people think of government as invasive an unwelcome.
4. It corrupted many in the police, other forms of law enforcement and even the courts.
5. In spite of its eventual failure, it empowered Feds into believing they could further infringe on State's rights.

Overall, it was hugely damaging to the US, in ways that we never recovered from.

Sobriety? Little to no effect. Booze was easy to get, even when illegal.
Economic effect? Very negative. Lots of resources were directed into fighting alcohol that could have otherwise been used productively. The alcohol market was distorted badly. The money spent on alcohol did not reward the best producers, it rewarded the best criminals.

[donnay]

1. It empowered a new type and class of criminals and gangs, with much more power and money than they ever had before.
2. It corrupted government at all levels.
3. It made many people think of government as invasive an unwelcome.
4. It corrupted many in the police, other forms of law enforcement and even the courts.
5. In spite of its eventual failure, it empowered Feds into believing they could further infringe on State's rights.

Overall, it was hugely damaging to the US, in ways that we never recovered from.

Sobriety? Little to no effect. Booze was easy to get, even when illegal.
Economic effect? Very negative. Lots of resources were directed into fighting alcohol that could have otherwise been used productively. The alcohol market was distorted badly. The money spent on alcohol did not reward the best producers, it rewarded the best criminals.

Well said.

It also made politicians and businessmen partners and they made lots of money in the process.
Anyone who decided to make booze that was out of the network, so to speak, was taken down. Which meant selective enforcement of prohibition to knock out the competition.

The drug war is nothing more than a grander scale of alcohol prohibition.

[oyarde]

is it another way of saying that the life was easier for those lucky to be alive, because there was less people worrying about unemployment?

Well , people would have had a much better understanding of own mortality . No person in the US would not have lost at least a family member, co worker or close friend to the war or flu , the avg person would have lost multiple relationships like this, all within avery few short years . Kind of puts a whole new twist on being Sat. night , the bills are paid, you have some money in your pocket , want to go out, have a drink , listen to some music, when half the people you know are dead and you are still young.

[KCIndy]

Yes.

1) did prohibition keep more people sober, which made the roaring twenties safer, saner (would alcohol have made the parties less fun, more crimes make the economy less stable?)

2) would the economy have been better or worse if alcohol were legal?

Is this a school assignment?

Donnay beat me to it, but I was going to comment that Prohibition in the twenties was just as much a failure as our modern "war on drugs." Prohibition was quickly recognized as the utter failure it was. Sadly, our idiot politicians today can't seem to make that same concession in the "drug war."