German Government Beer Bash

In America, the very idea of a state owned corporation tends to make people quite nervous. And who can blame them? Let's face it -- the government here doesn't have the best track record when it comes to looking out for people's best interests. But the free market push towards deregulation hasn't been such great shakes either, a point that this global economic crisis is driving home.

In an article published at AlterNet, Jay Walljasper raises an interesting question: if the government is going to take over and operate failed businesses, what's to stop it from owning and operating thriving ones as well, bringing forth an entirely new economic model? Could this be one way to help keep the economy stay afloat while keeping jobs from going overseas? 

Walljasper brings up the Rothaus Brewery, owned by the German state of Baden-Württemberg for over two hundred years, to state his case. In an environment where huge corporate breweries like Lowenbrau and Beck's have seen sales plunged 13 percent since 1992, Rothaus has seen sales double.  They don't even have to market to customers as they depend on a solid following through word of mouth.

As the Times reports, "Even the fact that it is wholly owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg lends it a sense of homeyness in a rootless era. That, in turn, has given it creditability with anti-corporate, anti-globalization crowd. In Germany, where capitalism is viewed with deep mistrust and populism is on the upswing, that is not such a small audience."
Image: "Bethany and beer" by Digapony on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.