> Do alcoholics find their daily usage of alcohol really useful? Of course they do. They use it to get drunk and to avoid withdrawals. You're trying to confuse

> Do alcoholics find their daily usage of alcohol really useful? Of course they do. They use it to get drunk and to avoid withdrawals. You're trying to confuse useful with productive. Being productive does make a difference, though, because if something isn't productive it doesn't generate enough cash to buy more of it - you have to pull the cash from somewhere else. So I think your feeling is correct, although your argument is wrong. Buying gas for your car is productive, because it gets you to work which gets you money to pay for more gas and other things (like alcohol.) Buying alcohol is not productive, and that means that people can't pay too much for it.