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Non moralist argument against the alcohol industry: most of the alcohol revenue comes from a very concentrated core of heavy drinkers who blow through the liver

Non moralist argument against the alcohol industry: most of the alcohol revenue comes from a very concentrated core of heavy drinkers who blow through the liver health guidelines and definitions of binge drinking. So the industry would suffer a massive shock if the relatively small group of people damaging their livers were to decide to stop doing so. This means that the industry relies on the intentional harming of a small group of people's bodies in order to survive.

brittohalloran 9y ago
Do you have any data on this? There are certainly heavy consumers but my (not data backed) feeling was that there's a fat tail - if there are thousands of high consumption binge drinkers then there are millions of casual "several drinks a week" drinkers that would dominate the actual dollars spent. Also, unlike say internet bandwidth, there is actually a logistical limit to how much alcohol you could consume in a week, and it doesn't seem like it could be much more than 1 order of magnitude over the average casual consumer (3-4 drinks vs. 30-40 per week).
- __s 9y ago
  It shows up anywhere Zipf's Law shows up http://academyofwinebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/File-014.pdf http://academyofwinebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?utm_term=.0740bc442f39 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...
- paulddraper 9y ago
  Moreover, I would expect that heavy drinkers to purchase much cheaper alcohol than one-glass-of-wine-at-a-restaurant drinkers.
- tasty_freeze 9y ago
  Washington Post had an article and a chart on it. The top decile has 74 drinks per week, way more than the bottom 90% combined. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?utm_term=.74527673ce0a https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...
  - brittohalloran 9y ago
    Unbelievable. Thanks. The top decile actually consume over 75% of the alcohol (by number of drinks, probably less by dollars)

brittohalloran 9y ago

Do you have any data on this? There are certainly heavy consumers but my (not data backed) feeling was that there's a fat tail - if there are thousands of high consumption binge drinkers then there are millions of casual "several drinks a week" drinkers that would dominate the actual dollars spent. Also, unlike say internet bandwidth, there is actually a logistical limit to how much alcohol you could consume in a week, and it doesn't seem like it could be much more than 1 order of magnitude over the average casual consumer (3-4 drinks vs. 30-40 per week).

__s 9y ago
It shows up anywhere Zipf's Law shows up http://academyofwinebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/File-014.pdf http://academyofwinebusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?utm_term=.0740bc442f39 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...
paulddraper 9y ago
Moreover, I would expect that heavy drinkers to purchase much cheaper alcohol than one-glass-of-wine-at-a-restaurant drinkers.
tasty_freeze 9y ago
Washington Post had an article and a chart on it. The top decile has 74 drinks per week, way more than the bottom 90% combined. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think-you-drink-a-lot-this-chart-will-tell-you/?utm_term=.74527673ce0a https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/25/think...
- brittohalloran 9y ago
  Unbelievable. Thanks. The top decile actually consume over 75% of the alcohol (by number of drinks, probably less by dollars)