The Gulag Prisoners of Pennsylvania
In a recent story titled "A Push to Privatize Pennsylvania Liquor Stores," New York Times reporter Katharine Seelye described a state-owned liquor store in Forest City, Pa, that ran out of eggnog before Christmas and concluded that customers of these stores are "like prisoners in the gulag" (more).
In a recent story titled “A Push to Privatize Pennsylvania Liquor Stores,” New York Times reporter Katharine Seelye described a state-owned liquor store in Forest City, Pa., that ran out of eggnog before Christmas and concluded that customers of these stores are “like prisoners in the gulag” who “can only fantasize about buying their wine and liquor in a competitive free market.” Prisoners in a gulag? According to the Census Bureau, Forest City has 1,708 residents. How many towns with 1,708 residents have a liquor store at all, let alone one that stocks eggnog? Why choose a tiny place with a store that is open only three days a week to represent the issues concerning the privatization of liquor sales in Pennsylvania? Is this reporting or editorializing?
Moshe Adler teaches economics at Columbia University and at the Harry Van Arsdale Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College. He is the author of “Economics for the Rest of Us: Debunking the Science That Makes Life Dismal” (The New Press, 2010).
Dig, Root, GrowThis year, we’re all on shaky ground, and the need for independent journalism has never been greater. A new administration is openly attacking free press — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Your support is more than a donation. It helps us dig deeper into hidden truths, root out corruption and misinformation, and grow an informed, resilient community.
Independent journalism like Truthdig doesn't just report the news — it helps cultivate a better future.
Your tax-deductible gift powers fearless reporting and uncompromising analysis. Together, we can protect democracy and expose the stories that must be told.
Dig. Root. Grow. Cultivate a better future.
Donate today.
A Russian historian faces four years in prison for having the nerve to research Stalin's gulags, which Russian revisionists would have you believe either didn't exist or were a form of forced vacation.
With Georgia on the U.S. mainstream media's map after its recent war with Russia, a new interest in Georgian history and politics seems to have come to life, especially concerning the cult of personality that Stalin still leads in his native land.
He was born into a Cossack family, which was just one of many indications that life wasn't exactly going to be conflict-free for Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died Aug. 3. The Russian writer survived eight years in Stalin's notorious gulags and became one of his country's most controversial critical thinkers, a process that continued during the two decades he was forced to live in exile.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.