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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#761

Post by boringg »

I do like to have a drink myself (cool if you don't drink) but it really feels like alcohol has become ubiquitous in society in that many business use the margins from alcohol sales to bring up their revenue.

The older I get the more people seem entrenched in their patterns and it seems like anywhere I go alcohol is available for sale.

Company events, family places for having drinks (i.e. pubs, parks etc). It seems that alcohol is everywhere and enabling a lifestyle. Not sure how I feel about it but it certainly feels very present in society much more so than 20 years ago.

I figure part of it is the rise of the local microbrewery/distillery, local job economy to promote specialist beverages and certainly the large corporates promoting alcohol throughout society.

Counter though is that the younger generation seem to avoid alcohol from what i've heard and some of the companies are concerned about the future. Sounds like big tobacco from the 90s.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#762

Post by daniellarusso »

kortilla wrote: post #638
8192kjshad09- wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of ways to measure the harm of drugs. But pretty much all of them result in cannabis being among the least harmful. Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. This means drinking ~10 times as much as your usual amount of alcohol has a 50% chance of killing you. For…

> Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. That’s a pretty pointless indicator. By that measure marijuana is better for you than water.

That is technically correct if you were to consume abnormal amounts of either substance.

I have read of people dying from consuming too much water.

I have not read that of cannabis.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865

Re: America has a drinking problem

#763

Post by placer »

Since the linked article mentions Glaser’s now-discredited 2015 article which falsely claims AA is not helpful: The latest science shows that Alcoholics Anonymous is a very helpful resource for many alcoholics, and that AA increases sobriety by 7% compared to other treatments.

Some references:

- https://www.thecut.com/2015/03/why-alcoholics-anonymous-work...

- https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/03/11/medical-science...

- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7065341/

Re: America has a drinking problem

#764

Post by tilolebo »

capableweb wrote: post #658
hutzlibu wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binge drinking is a problem in germany. You can allmost call it youth culture, most kids go through, before becoming adults. In my late teenage years, it was common and expected on parties to drink, until you have fun, who can drink the most (and puke afterwards), etc. Most people, like myself, had enough of this after some time and matured - but I know too many people, where the booze and beer stayed with them.

> You can allmost call it youth culture, most kids go through, before becoming adults Yes, exactly, this is "kids being kids", we all go through a period of our life where we do stupid shit, related to drugs or other "extreme" things where risks of hurting ourselves is probably higher than the reward, but it's fun so why not? But then we grow up and change in "proper" adults. I think when we talk about "binge drinkin…

You're trivializing alcohol and drug consumption in a dangerous way.

Binge drinking and other drugs consumption are very serious youth problems leading to lifelong health issues or even death.

I'm also pretty sure there is a correlation between youth and adult consumption.

Finally, Germany has a higher alcohol consumption per year per person than the USA

Re: America has a drinking problem

#765

Post by cedilla »

NateEag wrote: post #730
dayvid wrote: post #721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in Japan, I met a guy who was a manager of a Japanese supermarket branch in Hawai’i for some time. He said in Japan, people are usually about the same. But in America, people are either really smart or really stupid.

It's hard to generalize correctly about a population of three hundred million. That's especially true when doing it based on personal experience.

I don't think the difference between a country of 125 million and 300 million is very meaningful in that regard.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#766

Post by mentat »

gambiting wrote: post #736
knicholes wrote: post #731

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about free online programs like Stanford and MIT Open courseware? Or public libraries? The education is waiting there to be had even without a college tuition or degree.

What about them? I'm not denying there is free education out there. My point is in other countries you have freedom to chose and don't incur debt for your choices. Want to be an IT professional with a 4 year collage degree? No debt. Want to be a doctor with 8 years of education? No debt. Want to be a stylist? No debt. Study ancient history? No debt. Yes, there is free education available in the US - but it's what oth…

You have to pass difficult standardized tests to qualify for these spots though. It's not like 50,000 people can just decide they want to be doctors. It depends on ability as measured by testing ability which generally still relates to economic ability in aggregate.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#767

Post by tamariskneo »

golergka wrote: post #754
dougmwne wrote: post #743

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of this is just because the USA is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to the USA:) Plus, this is a country made up of a little piece of every other country in the world. "American identity" is an ex post facto rationalization. Not to mention that politically we often oper…

Russia is bigger in terms of area, just two times smaller in terms of population, but 10 times more uniform, at least. You wouldn't be able to tell apart two typical provincial Russian towns from the opposite sides of the country. So, no, just the size itself doesn't seem like a complete explanation for this.

While size isn't a complete explanation, its important to consider the population distribution as well. Russia may be geographically larger but the population is much more concentrated than it is in the US.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#768

Post by tolbish »

criddell wrote: post #759
refurb wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the media coverage has twisted your view of the US. As someone who immigrated to the US, if you travel the country it seems like any other country. Rich people and poor people. Left wing and right wing. Religious and the atheists. I mean Americans could list a similar number of stereotypes about the British (for example), but if you’ve ever visited there you’d realize they’re not that different than anyone el…

What are the British stereotypes? The only one I can think of is from watching BBC produced television series. It seems like the British response to any trouble, minor or large, is to put the kettle on.

Even as an American I know there are massive British stereotypes by class. For example, football hooligans with cockney accents.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#769

Post by eli_gottlieb »

capableweb wrote: post #656
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…

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…

>The social experiment seems to be about how extreme you can really make inequality before people starts to riot.

Well, the answer to that is obvious: people have long since started to riot, just about almost anything except economic inequality and exploitation.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#770

Post by [deleted] »

karlkloss wrote: post #678
yoz-y wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Nope. In most restaurants and bars, 300ml is the standard size, sometimes even 250ml. 500ml is considered a big beer. 300ml is also the standard size at festivities, concerts and sports games. In Colone, the standard size of the local beer (Kölsch) is 200ml, but 300ml is also common. In the south of Germany, especially bavaria, 500ml is the standard size in restaurants, and 1L at festivities and in bars run by brewer…

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