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I have a friend that growing up would talk non-stop about how backwards the US was for having a 21 year old drinking age, compared to Europe where it wasn't as
by Eumenes 3y ago
I have a friend that growing up would talk non-stop about how backwards the US was for having a 21 year old drinking age, compared to Europe where it wasn't as "normalized" ... I feel vindicated looking at these stats.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- leetcrew 3y agoI don't think the per capita figures prove your friend wrong here. my napkin math indicates that 10L / year of pure alcohol equates to about 1.5 standard US drinks per day. so the US average is a bit below that and DE is closer to 2 per day on average. if everyone actually drank 1-2 drinks per day, alcohol would not be a big deal. it's probably not ideal for public health, but the antisocial behaviors associated with alcohol abuse would be vanishingly rare. but that's not actually what we see. we do see lots of collisions caused by drunk drivers, fights breaking out at bars, domestic abuse, etc. the issue with this statistic is that most Americans don't drink everyday. a small part of the population drives the average up by drinking way more than the others. this is all a long way of saying the distribution shape probably matters a lot more than a 40% difference in average consumption.
- lucozade 3y agoThe drinking age in Lithuania is 20 and they come in at 15 litres/year. Anyway, it's likely to be largely cultural. If you look at the US, it varies hugely by state. New Hampshire, for example, is something like 17.5 litres per year. Brits are rank amateurs in comparison.
- Jerrrry 3y agoAsk them what they think about teenagers drinking energy drinks. The dichotomy is so full of cognitive dissonance it's a decent litmus test for self awareness.