America has a drinking problem • Hacker News Board

Re: America has a drinking problem

#881

Post by InitialLastName » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 10:40 PM UTC

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #769

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…

>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.

I think you'll find that all the people we see rioting (whatever side they're on) would cite economic inequality and exploitation as a source of their problem; their differences of opinion (and focuses) might be over who is getting exploited and by whom.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#882

Post by tastyfreeze » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #880

tastyfreeze wrote: post #873

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, everybody has a different starting point. That is life. Some families have the benefit of their ancestors working their asses off to pass something on to their heirs. That doesn't mean you cry foul and try to destroy the track or rig the race in your favor. You do the same as those people's ancestors. You work your ass off to pass something on to your heirs. Everybody can do this. That is equal opportunity. Ther…

It strikes me as similar to the approach displayed by American conservatives - the belief that there is a natural order to the society, and that's just how life is. Some people inherit insane amount of wealth, and that's fine, their ancestors worked really hard so they clearly deserve it. Poor people are poor because they don't work hard enough, or simply because they don't deserve anything else. But hey. As long as…

It is not a belief that there is a natural order in society. It is a belief that even if you are starting at 0 you can still reap the rewards of your own hard work. Starting from 0 does mean you are less likely to end up a billionaire. But, you can build your personal wealth and pass it on to make your "familial starting point" higher the next generation.

You are arguing that all these things are in the way of equal opportunity. I am arguing that they are issues on their own. Equal opportunity already exists.

High medical cost is an economic issue that is exacerbated by social policy. Insurance requirements and hidden medical care price both played into climbing medical care cost. Insurance companies and medical providers do not care about the high cost as both benefit from higher cost. There is no market feedback from the actual receivers of services.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#883

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 11:11 PM UTC

netizen-936824 wrote: post #878

bumby wrote: post #842

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are correct, but also think that’s why Jefferson deliberately rooted the virtue of experimentation in our ability to use reason to interpret the results. If someone is acting in bad faith, the fault is not in the experimental process but rather their faculty in interpreting the results. We wouldn’t throw out experimentation in science just because a researcher was biased in their result. The OP seems to b…

You are correct, however my point was that when we see bad faith acting people will continue to use the same descriptive language of it being an "experiment" when there are active, known harms

[deleted]

Re: America has a drinking problem

#884

Post by wink » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

verst wrote: post #854

wink wrote: post #733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends a little, but in southern Germany (and parts of Austria) 500ml is absolutely the standard and small ones aren't even available in most restaurants (the more regional, the less likely). I've never lived in the north, just visited very often, and there it could be different depending on the region, setting. Some also say they feel 500ml is the default, others are more in the 330ml range.

I also want to add that 1 standard drink is something defined by the government / health authorities. This isn't the typical drink Bavarians actually drink. It is used for calculation of blood alcohol level or for medical purposes. Seems that most beers in Bavaria probably approximately equate to 2 standard drinks, meanwhile a small Pilsener commonly found in the North is about 1 standard drink.

Yes, I know (now). But we don't have this measurement of a "standard drink" at all. An Australian ex-coworker had to explain the term, much to my confusion. By "the standard" I simply meant what you will get if you go to a restaurant (or pub or bar) and order "one beer".

Re: America has a drinking problem

#885

Post by dang » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 12:32 AM UTC

vortegne wrote: post #698

gideon13 wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Would you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? Your account has done a lot of that and we're trying for a different sort of site.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful. That would also include not calling names or being snarky in comments here.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#886

Post by snowflake_ptr » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:03 AM UTC

gilbetron wrote: post #756

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…

> Why is half the country without proper education Some of it is inequality, but some of it is willful diversity. There is a strong undercurrent that education is bad - a counterculture of ignorance. It is something that bewilders me, and that has only become clear to me in the past 5 years or so. It isn't that some people lack access to education that they want, but rather do not want access to that education becaus…

> There is a strong undercurrent that education is bad - a counterculture of ignorance.

My experience has been with people who don't think that education is bad, but modern universities. I know many people who are smart, self-driven, industrious people who like learning things - who aren't interested in going to a public university. (they're more than happy to avail themselves of YouTube videos, Coursera courses, GitHub projects, work on things with friends, and so on)

Given the state of modern universities, with so many of them pushing the murderous ideology that is neo-Marxism, I can't blame them. A few more generations of this and we'll have our own Cultural Revolution, except with even more than the tens of millions of deaths that China did with theirs.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#887

Post by snowflake_ptr » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #742

hallway_monitor wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was pretty poor. My mom worked part-time and call centers and did medical studies to earn extra money while my dad worked full-time. I made some bad choices, but then got a 2-year degree at a community college and yes, I did use some grants which I'm very thankful for. Not to be pedantic but there's really no such thing as free is there? Someone is paying for that college. Personally I don't want to subsidize these…

>>Not to be pedantic but there's really no such thing as free is there? Someone is paying for that college. That is pedantic - literally no one with an ounce of intelligence would think that money for those services comes from the moon. Of course it comes from out taxes. I'm happy to pay my taxes to make sure everyone has the same opportunities. >>Personally I don't want to subsidize these quote unquote elite univers…

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#888

Post by stryan » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:33 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #877

stryan wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cannabis is absolutely healthier then alcohol by the sheer fact that it can not kill you.

It can kill you though. It raises blood pressure and in some people this causes heart attacks.

Interesting, I didn't know that. Though I'd argue that's not quite the same as alcohol and/or alcohol withdrawal are active causes of death while this seems more like a side-effect/contributor. At least from what I'm getting from the article[1] I read.

Still, good point I'll keep that in mind.

[1]https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/what-you-should-kno...

Re: America has a drinking problem

#889

Post by unethical_ban » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

kenneth wrote: post #493

jnathsf wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many have gone California sober [0] - moving away from alcohol to cannabis and psychedlics as a way to be more healthy and sustainable [0] https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/california-sober/

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological downsides to regular cannabis use.

You didn't even list any examples.

I'll say this for cannabis: it can slow my mind down a bit when I otherwise am thinking about the 500 things that are worrying me in my life, and it allows me to sit down and watch a movie when I sometimes find it very hard to get the focus to do so. Self-medicating? Sure. Will I overdose on it or suddenly act with appalling bravado, risk-taking and sometimes anger? No. It makes me want to eat junk food.

Alcohol, I believe, is much more dangerous (when used to get to the point of drunken-ness on a regular basis) for your body and behavior.

I don't like the appeal of "stoner" culture either, and I think that like any vice or substance, it can have a negative effect on abusers. Our experiences must be different.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#890

Post by NationalPark » Thu, Jun 03, 2021, 2:24 AM UTC

misiti3780 wrote: post #755

NationalPark wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is about Americans increasingly binge drinking alone though? How is it ridiculous to talk about this problem?

Because as long as I am not breaking the law, my drinking habits don't affect your life!

Sadly many people's private drinking habits have affected my life, both directly and indirectly.