I'm sure others have noticed this: you go into a restaurant, get a menu, and the prices for all the food are listed next to the items. Same for non-alcoholic beverages. But you then look at the menu for alcoholic beverages and -- with the exception of wine -- the prices are usually NOT posted.

I'm almost certain this is done because restaurants believe that you're more likely to order an alcoholic drink if you're not focused on how much it will cost. Especially since drinks are a huge "profit center" for restaurants (typically a much greater mark-up than on food). But it's certainly annoying to at least some customers -- including me. Sometimes, I don't order a beer because I don't know how much it will cost. And, I can't compare the relative values ("Oh, that micro brew is a good deal here -- I'll go with one of them"). I guess you can try asking the waitress, but who really wants to have to go line-by-line over alcohol prices with the waitstaff (you certainly wouldn't do it in many social situations)? And, half the time, they don't really know anyway.

The gov't seems to like to regulate everything, so why not take the simple step of requiring restaurants to post their drink prices. When I travel abroad, it seems like drink prices are ALWAYS posted alongside food prices. Why is it different in the US?