When "single (blank)" is code for "state monopoly"

Massachusetts operates its liquor stores by letting independent distributors purchase and sell the liquor in retail stores.  Other stores let the state itself price and distribute the booze - a prime example being New Hampshire, where you can buy certain kinds of beer in drug stores but you could only buy the hard stuff at State Liquor Stores.

Due to yesterday's Hurricane Sandy, many stores were closed up and down the Eastern Seaboard.  Most reopened today - except for all liquor stores in Pennsylvania (via Consumerist, Philly.com), which closed per their Liquor Control Board "to assess the damage from Hurricane Sandy."

Now, if that meant "to prevent people from looting the stores for free liquor," that's one thing (and understandable - but no one should be denied a tipple in between cleaning out from a hurricane).  If it means "we want to make sure none of the stores were damaged," it's fine.  But when it's a vague phrase meant to keep people in the dark (no pun intended), and when people are crossing into Maryland and Delaware to purchase - it raises a lot of eyebrows.

One of the comments in Philly.com, however, drew my attention.  In reference to Pennsylvania's oft-maddening liquor purchase laws, which would make Ben Franklin drink,

"The truth is if [the Liquor Control Board is] run really efficiently, and being a single buyer for the whole state, this system could really have the lowest prices anywhere."

I take "single buyer" to be the code for "state monopoly."  Single buyer implied some nice middle-aged guy named Fred works in Harrisburg and buys all the alcohol for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  State monopoly evokes deep bureaucracies that we thought had died with the Soviet Union.

In fact, "single (blank)" is shorthand for state monopoly in anything.  ("Medicare for All" is the cynically cutesy code for "You have no choice for healthcare other than what we're offering, and if you don't like it, tough.")  This is why it makes sense when people want "single payor" healthcare, they really are referring to a state monopoly where a thick, unwavering bureaucracy makes every decision on health care as if they have a rubber band firmly tightened over their hinterparts, controlling every single aspect of healthcare from what we eat, how much exercise we get, how much sleep we get, and what medicines we're allowed to take.  The state and only the state gets to determine things, not individuals or businesses.

And that's what people really believe to their own selfish and myopic means: that if they're ruled over by the state, they will be treated benevolently.  Most often, they realize the harsher reality of a dictatorship: no room complaints and criticism, no freedom of movement, and a huge cult of personality they must honor, or else.