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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#621

Post by novaRom »

oblio wrote: post #611
redisman wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is exactly the same though. Majority of the countries/people don’t drink fancy wines for dinner but binge drink to party and forget about their troubles. Upper middle class in a few wine producing countries does not create a continental monoculture. Anyone from Northern/Eastern Europe or UK will be shocked by US drinking culture in the opposite direction. My experience of Germany was also certainly not “wine f…

Hard liquor consumption is dropping everywhere in Europe and wine and beer are going up, especially in Eastern Europe, famous for hard liquor binging. Only Northern Europe with its dreary weather is the outlier, somewhat. My point being that raw alcohol consumption is going down across Europe.

Beer consumption in Germany is falling year after year consistently. Wine is growing, especially during Covid-19 time.

source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/575106/beer-consumption-...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#622

Post by inglor_cz »

dcolkitt wrote: post #430
quadyeast wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that chart does not make sense to me unless >10% of Americans are AA. I can't think of anyone, besides non-drinking Alcoholics, that have less than 1 drink/wk

Older people drink significantly less than the young. By age 65, more than half Americans are teetotalers.

By age 65, most heavy drinkers are dead.

I once used to visit my friend in a rehab (he pulled it off and now is sober). There were no people over 55 actually, though some 40-somethings looked seventy on the outside. "Oh, either you get sober or you die way, way earlier than the general population," said the nurse when I asked her where the old-timers are.

To fit the pattern, my grandpa, a functional alcoholic, died at 57. His brother, who was much more careful with his drink, lived to 87.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#623

Post by marton_s »

fataliss wrote: post #615
marton_s wrote: post #613

I’m curious if there is a country which does not have a drinking problem (set aside those where alcohol is forbidden).

And even then, if prohibition showed one thing is that forbidding alcohol does not prevent alcohol drinking at all :D

True. As someone not familiar with contemporary societies where drinking is not allowed, I’m in fact curious about their drinking problems as well.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#624

Post by vmception »

lordnacho wrote: post #593
Barrin92 wrote: post #135

Article mirrors my experience. For context I'm German, my wife's French and we've got family in Croatia who own a vineyard so I'm used to being around alcohol and people drinking. My first impression when I spent time was in the US was indeed how bipolar drinking is compared to Europe. We probably drink a hell of a lot more in raw terms than the average American does.Two glasses of wine for dinner, another one in the…

One thing that comes to mind is the 21 year age restriction on the US, which seems to actually be enforced. Where I grew up in Europe there was an 18 year limit officially but not really, and you could get all the booze you wanted as an teenager. Cannabis too. I went to an international school, so we'd get American kids coming in and realising that they could drink before graduating into a dry university. At least on…

I do see Americans as having stunted growth regarding some vices

The night life hours being so few exacerbate that too

Re: America has a drinking problem

#625

Post by yoz-y »

SilverRed wrote: post #504
Sophistifunk wrote: post #423

People have the cause and effect backwards in my opinion. You know why "binge drinking" isn't a problem in Germany, except for when the Australians turn up for Oktoberfest? It's because you can just buy a beer on the side of the road with your currywurst, and drink it without being hassled. If you act up, you get arrested for acting up. Try openly having a few beers in the park in Australia or the US, you'll be run o…

The public drinking laws are not because the government thinks the average person can't be trusted. It's because the homeless population has a large drinking problem and it often results in people getting assaulted on the street. These laws let the police do something about this before it results in harm.

If that’s the case then I think that the government is solving the wrong problem.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#626

Post by mschuster91 »

my_usernam3 wrote: post #563
swensel wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can drink openly at the beach. In CA at least, drinking at most beaches is not legal: https://beachlifeexpert.com/beaches/alcohol-guide-california...

not legal, but very socially acceptable

... if you are young and white. For people of color, the "selective enforcement" effect kicks in which makes these laws so immensely prone to abuse.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#627

Post by yosito »

dluan wrote: post #366
yosito wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> America's early history is mass drinking ... since it was first touched by colonizers.

Since as in time, not causative...

But that's not accurate either. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/11/native-ameri...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#628

Post by mushbino »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #423

People have the cause and effect backwards in my opinion. You know why "binge drinking" isn't a problem in Germany, except for when the Australians turn up for Oktoberfest? It's because you can just buy a beer on the side of the road with your currywurst, and drink it without being hassled. If you act up, you get arrested for acting up. Try openly having a few beers in the park in Australia or the US, you'll be run o…

I I think you make some good points as far as general cultural attitudes exacerbating the problem. To an extent, I also think the same can be applied to all drugs. These are social, cultural, and health issues more often than they are criminal issues.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#629

Post by yoz-y »

verst wrote: post #565
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #153

It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. Alcohol consumption habits vary greatly from region to region, or even city to city depending on where you live. I've noticed that heavy drinkers tend to cluster with other heavy drinkers. The more you see your friends and coworkers binge drinking regularly, the more you feel it's an acceptable and even common behavior. Likewise, non-drinkers tend to cluster with each o…

1 standard drink. Did you know that a US standard drink for beer is 12 ounces (a pint is 16) at 5% alcohol by volume? In the PNW Pints Are the standard size and definitely stronger than 5%. Also the German standard drink size for beer is less than 12 fluid ounces. Similar differences exist for other beverage types. These comparisons are not only difficult, but the survey takers vastly underreport their actual consump…

I though the standard beer in Europe was always 500ml.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#630

Post by mhaberl »

pedalpete wrote: post #343
trts wrote: post #29

I decided to give up alcohol for a year. That was three years ago and doubt I will ever go back. Aside from having better sleep than at any other point as an adult, I truly enjoy the activities I partake in just as much, if not more, than when I still paired them with alcohol. It took about 6 months to stop feeling like I was missing out, and now I feel like everyone else is. Anxiety in general is noticeably lower (t…

I'm in a similar boat. I stopped, but without a timeframe for how long. I just knew I had to cut back, but that wasn't working well, so I just stopped, and when I was offered a drink, I'd say "I don't drink", because here in Australia, I find if you say no to a drink, it's mostly forced on you. The statement put an end to that. However, I also internalized being an non-drinker. It became part of my identity. I don't…

> when I was offered a drink, I'd say "I don't drink", because here in Australia, I find if you say no to a drink, it's mostly forced on you

I just avoid it as much as I can, but for me saying I don’t drink wouldn’t always work. People would just insist “just one drink”.

Friend of mine said, as joke, I should start telling people that I am an alcoholic (which I am not) so they leave me alone. I actually tried this and it works every time.

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