America has a drinking problem
theatlantic.com
America has a drinking problem
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Re: America has a drinking problem
#2What are we trying to escape?
Re: America has a drinking problem
#3The 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 a single glass, but regardless the consumption is extremely high.
Re: America has a drinking problem
#4What are we trying to escape?
Stress
Re: America has a drinking problem
#5I found it pretty amusing to see how drunk our founding fathers were. I think being drunk played a huge role in the American revolution
Re: America has a drinking problem
#6The 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…
It sounds like a lot but I know lots of people in rural areas with extreme poverty (grew up in one of the poorest counties in the midwest) where this sort of drinking was commonplace. They drink as soon as they wake up and don't stop until they fall asleep. Anecdotal I know but certainly believable for me.
Re: America has a drinking problem
#7When I worked in offices (sw dev and qa, especially executives), or at survival jobs that mixed with lots of people (security guard, shelf stocking, etc), I was very often surprised at how many people I could smell alcohol on.
We're all drunks.
I don't drink much anymore. I never went to work drunk, but I used to drink a fair amount. Now that I'm a truck driver, it's too inconvenient for me personally to manage drinking, so I just don't drink. Others' mileage definitely varies.
Re: America has a drinking problem
#8The 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…
It sounds like a lot but I know lots of people in rural areas with extreme poverty (grew up in one of the poorest counties in the midwest) where this sort of drinking was commonplace. They drink as soon as they wake up and don't stop until they fall asleep. Anecdotal I know but certainly believable for me.
Yeah, I'm from the poorest county in my state and 10+ beers a day is honestly absolutely nothing to quite a decent part of the population out here.
Re: America has a drinking problem
#9The 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…
The average of the top 10% of anything is going to be absurd compared to the population average; probably around 2 standard deviations over the mean. If you looked at the average caloric consumption at the top 10% of people, you'd probably find the amount similarly unbelievable.
Ten drinks isn't that much hard liquor: it's about 450ml. That's a little more than a can (392ml).
Re: America has a drinking problem
#10Worked at a startup with beer stocked in the fridge. I enjoyed a beer several times a week once it hit 4-5pm. This behavior started as an intern and I still got brought back for full time so apparently they didn't care.