Why Was The 21st Amendment Important

21st AMENDMENT PASSED: 18th AMENDMENT REPEALED

History has been made! Yesterday the 21st Amendment was passed being the first Amendment to repeal another Amendment. More than a decade ago, the passing of the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Now that this law has been repealed, did it fulfill its purpose and solve any problems of America?

Even before the 18th Amendment went into effect in January of 1920, many Americans were in support of Prohibition. Supporters wanted America to be a healthier, safer, and more moral country. Alcohol was causing many problems around the United States. Some people were getting drunk on the job, causing accidents. Others were abusive towards their families. Many people

Lawmakers thought that prohibition would have a positive effect on the economy. They thought that people would stop spending so much money on alcohol and use it for something else, this didn’t happen. When the law went into effect, all of the breweries, distilleries, and saloons around the country were shut down, causing thousands of Americans to be unemployed. Thousands more jobs were lost at companies that transported alcohol around the country. A larger impact on the economy was the decrease in tax revenue. New York, along with many other states, relied on alcohol taxes. Almost 75% of the state’s revenue came from liquor taxes. The federal government lost eleven billion dollars in tax revenue because of prohibition and it took another three hundred million to enforce the law. Unexpectedly, the 18th Amendment was starting to have negative

One of the major reasons Prohibition went into effect was to reduce crime around the country. This however, was not the case. Within the first year, the crime rate increased by almost 25% in big cities. Throughout the rest of the decade, courts and prison cells were continually full. Big name bootleggers made millions on trading alcohol illegally. Al Capone, the most notorious bootlegger, made $60 million annually by selling illegal alcohol in Chicago. He was involved in a gang responsible for many murders and the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Capone was finally arrested four years ago, in May of 1929, after President Hoover ordered, “I want that man in jail!” The rise in crime proved to be one the the biggest mistakes of