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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#691

Post by mensetmanusman »

epicureanideal wrote: post #81
ksd482 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just grew up hating alcohol by looking at grown ups acting stupid and mistreating their wives and children. That's why I never developed a taste for alcohol. I sometimes drink socially but that is very rare: 3-4 times a year, 1 or 2 drinks each time. That's about it.

> mistreating their wives and children ...and husbands. Not all people who drink alcohol to excess are male.

Statistically it is far more men than women; and since this account is from an anecdotal point of view, it’s entirely possible female abuse of alcohol wasn’t witnessed.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#692

Post by throwaway0a5e »

op00to wrote: post #686
capableweb wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of the things you've listed sounds like diversity, it sounds like inequality. Why is half the country without proper education while the other ones are in the best research institutions in the world? And what does the people are those institutions spend their time on, if it's not helping the other half reaching the same position as themselves? The social experiment seems to be about how extreme you can really…

No one has ever quit a job because they can’t survive on it. If you’re really working paycheck to paycheck and barely scraping by, you don’t have the luxury of quitting. You would be homeless very quickly.

It's a little more nuanced than that. Crappy "barely survive" paying jobs tend to have high turnover and that's a two way street. You lose your job being janitor at the airport for pissing hot and you might not even lose a day's wage because you could be sweeping floors at the hospital that night if you play your cards right. Jiffy Lube gives you crap jobs for the 3rd straight week and you're rolling your toolbox into Midas the next Monday maybe without a single working hour lost if the new employer sends someone to help you get your stuff and get set up. Unskilled and barely skilled onboarding is nowhere near as drawn out and cumbersome as the white collar onboarding most of HN takes for granted.

I did stuff like that a few times back in the day (this century) when I was working those kinds of jobs.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#693

Post by makeitdouble »

graphtrader wrote: post #676
capableweb wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of the things you've listed sounds like diversity, it sounds like inequality. Why is half the country without proper education while the other ones are in the best research institutions in the world? And what does the people are those institutions spend their time on, if it's not helping the other half reaching the same position as themselves? The social experiment seems to be about how extreme you can really…

I think you are just repeating things you have read about. People walking out of their jobs because wages are so low is obvious bullshit. The people I know in this situation are the hardest working people I have ever met and it is insulting to them to say such things.

I have no idea about your walk of life, but people leaving low paying jobs doesn’t feel irrational or lazy, or bullshitty in general. Why shouldn’t they ?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#694

Post by yakubin »

bigfudge wrote: post #608
Marsymars wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get how one could pretty easily fall into a group of people who drink on a weekly (or more frequent) basis. That being said, of people I'm close to, my parents are a good counter-example. They split one beer every month or so.

Out of interest. What do people do at social occasions? What would you do if you met a friend after work on a Friday night? I think we need better options for this in the Uk... most cafes shut and not drinking in a pub still feels weird (and soft drinks are so sweet)

Pole here. I only drink when I go out with someone, or have a party. Mostly wine, once a couple years vodka. Occasionally, when I have company during lunch, we drink one glass of wine to it. Oftentimes though, when I invite someone over, we don't drink alcohol, I make lemonade or tea. Lemonade with matcha and ice cubes is a great replacement. Maybe more places should offer lemonade?

PS. It's not uncommon for me to drink 3 glasses of wine a year. Although recently I've been more social, so it's been 1-2 glasses of wine every 1-2 weeks. I don't go out of my way to drink alcohol, but I also don't avoid it.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#695

Post by mensetmanusman »

leokennis wrote: post #679
RalfWausE wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is what i want to say: Everything has consequeces! Nothing good comes without the bad, you will have to "pay a price" for everything... even when the "price" is a less enjoyed life ;-) What really bothers me is that it seems that the western culture is (at least from my perspective) striving to become a totally clean, political correct, vegan, moral and abstinent society. Something like the society in "Demoliton…

It depends. Sure, we cannot be perfect. But not being racist has no downsides. Not drinking has no downsides. Same for several other of our vices. So if there's no downside...why don't we stop?

Our short life would be less interesting without the occasional glass of wine while overlooking a beautiful mountain vineyard.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#696

Post by tcpekin »

6foot4_82iq wrote: post #475
Phillipharryt wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia allows drinking in parks unless it's a designated no-drinking area (usually any area outside an alcohol store). That being said different states in Aus handle alcohol differently and some are very strict. The major states of NSW and Vic are pretty chill though.

In Australia, all alcohol (yes, even beer and wine) can only be bought at designated liquor stores. The vast majority of which are only open 10AM~10PM, with a handful in Sydney and Melbourne open after midnight. Further, public drinking is all but restricted to destitutes outside of NYE and Aus day. Contrast that with Germany. Every two blocks there's a Späti, many open 20–24h daily, each selling beer, wine, and spir…

I'm not sure that is Germany as a whole though, Berlin yes, but in Munich there are not nearly as many spatis, and from the people that I've interacted with, in smaller towns the only place to get a beer in the evening/night is the gas station.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#697

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

op00to wrote: post #686
capableweb wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of the things you've listed sounds like diversity, it sounds like inequality. Why is half the country without proper education while the other ones are in the best research institutions in the world? And what does the people are those institutions spend their time on, if it's not helping the other half reaching the same position as themselves? The social experiment seems to be about how extreme you can really…

No one has ever quit a job because they can’t survive on it. If you’re really working paycheck to paycheck and barely scraping by, you don’t have the luxury of quitting. You would be homeless very quickly.

https://www.businessinsider.com/dollar-general-employees-eli...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#698

Post by vortegne »

gideon13 wrote: post #644
Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL wrote: post #636

Whenever I explain the "USA" to (Eastern) Europeans, I always simply state the notion: "diverse country of the extremes". Yes, widespread obesity, but health obsessions also run deep in that country, gym memberships, elite universities with sports programs full of money. How many weird diet fads start basically in the US? Self-help books, alternative gurus, etc. Bad education? Yes, pretty much. But also some of the b…

Interesting conflation of "patriotic" and "conservative" with "backwards".

"Conservative" and "backwards" are definitely the same thing though.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#699

Post by Cederfjard »

saiya-jin wrote: post #671
tick_tock_tick wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inequality does create diversity as it gives people a vastly different life experiences.

Just wow... I guess you would have different sentiment if you would be on the poor side of the inequality scale. Sentiment about poverty being good because it gives 'vastly different life experiences'? One of the things we can be actually proud here in Europe (mainly western part though), a rather strong middle class and tons of help to the poor (maybe too much according to some). I know its nice to find cheap poor f…

I don’t think the grandparent comment mean that this type of diversity is good, per se. I read it more as semantic pedantry.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#700

Post by neiman1 »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #16
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

The statistics about alcohol consumption are so stunning that I often wonder how accurate they are. If these numbers are correct, the top 10% of alcohol drinkers consume the equivalent of 10 drinks per day : https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think... The unit for a single drink is a fixed measurement, so someone pouring a tall glass of wine or a very stiff drink could be consuming 2-5 “drinks” in…

Honestly, as someone who has 2-3 drinks per day, I've always been more surprised by the amount of people who basically don't drink at all. In that chart it's over half of Americans. Travel a bit, any you'll quickly discover that a couple drinks in the evening is basically normal in much of the world. I'm not arguing that it's healthy (it's not), but the median American really doesn't drink much - our Puritan values r…

> our Puritan values run deep

Not for me, I just hate the taste of alcohol, would much rather a can of coke.

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