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Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

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Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#81

Post by alistairSH »

murrayhenson wrote: post #5
fouc wrote: post #2

What's interesting about this?

Maybe that the quotas are very low, or that there are quotas at all. Mainland Norway definitely doesn't have quotas like this; rather alcohol is simply made to be quite expensive. When I read this my first thought was something like, "I bet that those who don't drink are making a bit of profit on the side by selling their allowances." However, I'm guessing that for Svalbard's dedicated drinkers ...they're finding a w…

Maybe that the quotas are very low

24 bottles of liquor, 6 bottles of fortified wines, nearly 300 cans of beer, and unlimited wine annually is low? I'd hate to be the liver of anybody drinking that much.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#82

Post by jrockway »

tyingq wrote: post #6

Headline fooled me. To me quota usually means "you must do this much", this appears to be a limit.

Depends. I clicked through to read about mandatory alcohol consumption, but thinking about it further, consider the case where you have "1 GB of disk quota". In that case, it obviously means that you can use no more than 1 GB of disk, it definitely doesn't mean that you must use 1 GB of disk.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#83

Post by jonsen »

pmiller2 wrote: post #63
Quarrelsome wrote: post #32

Anyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent) suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being contributing factors.

Some of the hardest drinkers I know are Finns. I'm not sure exactly why that would be, i.e. why Finns might drink more than Norwegians or Swedes, but this has been my observation. Keep in mind, n=low (I'd have to think about it, and I don't want to expend the brainpower right now).

The statistics link in a sibling comment says Danes consume most among the nordics.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#84

Post by marvin »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #32

Anyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent) suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being contributing factors.

I can't speak for Svalbard specifically, but Norway in general has a long history of heavily taxing and regulating alcohol.

Alcohol stronger than beer can only be purchased at the state-run "wine monopoly", alcohol percentage stronger than 60% classified as narcotics and illegal, opening hours for alcohol sale (beer included) are mandated to be much shorter than for stores in general, no alcohol sales allowed on public holidays, Sundays or Saturdays after 3pm/6pm (wine+ and beer, respectively), etc.

Culturally, you can trace this back to the Protestant Christian heritage, where excessive alcohol consumption was considered both sinful and destructive. I'm certain there was something to the heavily negative view on the health- and socioeconomic effects of alcohol at the time (combined with poverty, hunger, cold, dark winters, isolation and the need for cooperating to thrive in such a climate), so I don't think it just boils down to unsubstantiated religious feelings.

There is still consensus that this is a good way of doing things, although the minority Christian conservative political wing are loudest about it.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#85

Post by [deleted] »

pmiller2 wrote: post #60
killtimeatwork wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, XIX century Poland has exactly the "minimum amount consumed" kind of quotas of alcohol... It was legislated by nobles who were producing alcohol from their grain and figured they'd force peasants to but it from them, to periodically extract whatever monetary surplus the peasants (serfs) managed to build up. One of the result was of course rampant alcoholism, since the peasants now owned buckets of vodk…

Considering how the only other thing I can think of to do with buckets of vodka in 19th century Poland is burn it, I'd probably go with drinking it, too. I'm not even sure burning it would work out well, either.

[deleted]

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#86

Post by jonsen »

C19is20 wrote: post #75
AdrianB1 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are mostly right, it is to prevent alcoholism like other attempts are still made in different countries to limit or ban soda and sweet drinks, cigarettes, some drugs, some or all guns. It is in general good for public health and bad for average IQ.

Why would preventing alcoholism be bad for average iq?

Could mean users are mostly low IQ and will die early.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#87

Post by rkjaran »

dahart wrote: post #74
Quarrelsome wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ye but you have to buy them from the government shop don't you? They don't sell alcohol in corner shops like the rest of the anglosphere.

I guess that’s just for hard alcohol? Iceland has beer in tourist shops at least, if not grocery stores. But in tourist shops it’s expensive enough that you wouldn’t want to stock up there. I saw individual bottles for $10 (cheap beer) and $20 US (nice beer), for example, at the Gullfoss store.

Iceland does not have beer in tourist shops or grocery stores. Alcohol is only sold at the state run monopoly, bars and restaurants. What they sell at grocery stores and tourist shops is non alcoholic or with a very low (<2.25%) alcohol content, and they're mostly produced to circumvent the ban on alcohol advertising.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#88

Post by iso1210 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #72
thrower123 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all of them, at least up through the end of the Napoleonic Wars. I believe it became less popular with the popular revolutions of 1848 and the advent of universal conscription.

I'm not a historian, but this doesn't match my understanding; that true weapons like swords and crossbows tended to be restricted, and peasants used scythes, clubs, etc. instead. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/268dmc/how_w...

Arround 1400, the King proclaimed that "every Englishman or Irishman dwelling in England must have a bow of his own height", at one point Tennis was banned to give more time to bow practice. By 1500s every man had to buy his 7 year old son a bow and teach him how to use it, and a bow+arrows must be kept in everyones house.

Crossbows on the other hand were practically banned, but this was more because a highly skilled longbowman was more deadly

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#89

Post by Thlom »

jonsen wrote: post #83
pmiller2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the hardest drinkers I know are Finns. I'm not sure exactly why that would be, i.e. why Finns might drink more than Norwegians or Swedes, but this has been my observation. Keep in mind, n=low (I'd have to think about it, and I don't want to expend the brainpower right now).

The statistics link in a sibling comment says Danes consume most among the nordics.

The Danes drinks every day while the Finns drink it all in one sitting.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#90

Post by iso1210 »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #71
iso1210 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone drinking an average of 6x 33ml cans of 4.3% beer a week would not be called an alcoholic in any normal conversation. That's 4.4 litres of alcohol a year - less than half the US intake (9.8l), less than Norway (7.5l) and would fit well in the bottom half of countries by alcohol intake. The ability to drink other things (scotch, wine, etc) is irrelevant if you only drink beer.

If only there was people who only drank one beer everyday and never more, however it is these same people who have the need to drink one beer every day that drink most at parties and get togethers or just in general over the week end. Maybe it is just the lives I've seen ruined by alcohol that as made me grumpy about alcohol consumpsion, but I would be concerned if someone is drinking enough to have a hangover every…

I don't see how you could get a hangover from drinking 6x330ml cans of beer in a single evening, let alone across a week. You evidently have a chip on your shoulder over alcohol
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