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Forget Piketty; The Real Problem In The US Is Inebriation Inequality
While income inequality maybe the hot topic du jour, the following chart suggests America has another - even bigger - problem - Inebriation Inequality. Perhaps stunning to many, the top 10% of US adults consume - on average - 10 drinks per day!!!
h/t @_cingraham
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Please excuse me, as I have been drinking, but what qualifies as the "top 10%"?
The top 10% of people that have drunk the most.
Probably exaggerated if they count an American beer as one drink.
Any more, the gubment considers thinking about having a drink, or being within 20' of a listerine bottle as having a drink. So, you're probably an alcoholic.
Alcoholism is a huge problem in the USA. Latest figure I saw is that about 12% are alcoholic, whether active or not.
Just counting direct costs for the moment, let's say that an alcoholic giving it all up saves an average of $8.00 per day (bare minimum average) adds up to over $2500 per year. That's out-of-pocket costs only. That does not count the other costs of alcohol addiction...
Bennie/Old Yellin is gonna dry me out!
<shakes fist>
Regards,
Cooter
I'll drink to that!
Hic!
Here's a song to go with it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRJ02VB5Evk
(Allen Sherman - The Drinking Man's Diet)
Obozo acts like always drunk
One drink is defined as 0.6 oz of pure (200 proof) alcohol which is
See: http://alcoholism.about.com/od/about/f/standard.htm
So 10 drinks per day is 6 oz of pure alcohol or just two 8 oz martinis of 80 proof booze!
Which is easy to do for "professional drinkers" of the top 10%
They're NOT drinking beer cause they would blow up like blimps in no time and wine hangovers are some of the worst.
FYI Blood Alcohol Content chart: http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/bac-charts/
Nope..... I just drink 10 martinis a day...
I'm just here for the free beer.
Yeah, but they die early so they don't cost us as much in SS and Medicare.
Hold on a minute. I gotta put out my cigarette. Take a nice sip from my drink.... ah, there we go.
You should thank people like me. I pay big taxes on those products and I won't live long enough to draw down on my "entitlements".
It's for the children, of course.
That is just so patriotic of you. I resemble that remark.
Cheers
Costs? What about the cost impact of alcoholism on Obamacare. We must declare War on Alcoholism. The progressives can stay true to form and bring back Prohibition or at least tax the crap out of it to offset healthcare costs and nudge you into proper behavior. For the chilfren.
I figure alcohol is keeping obamacare down. Self medication from 7/11 has got to be cheaper than whatever the doc is going to prescribe, no?
Probably better for your health too. Who the hell wants to put pharmaceuticals into their body these days?
I am with you and have engaged in battle with the beer in my fridge. So far they are going down easy. This may be a long hard war but I'm in it to the end.
I always win the fridge battle. It's the toilet battle I always lose...might as well just pour the fucking things straight in.
"the cost impact of alcoholism on Obamacare. We must declare War on Alcoholism"
Nah, They want the drunks and the druggies to keep the public dumbed down. However there is an hot war against intelligence, critical thinking and hard work.
withdrawn
[Should have mentioned that I really intended to mostly address my situation only]
Thats why I make my own! Bubble bubble bubble says the airlock.
Reminding me that my fermenter is empty.
Good point, but that depends on what you drink. I could drink rot gut nat light et.el,by the case and save that much. Thankfully, the Gods have graced me with a finer taste in my beer consumption...which does cost more. Hey, you pay for quality. I quit for 20 years and ate a lot more and, well got a few more "prescription" drugs a lot more. Considering a Big Mac costs a fiver, you do the math.
Boring.
Well, if this correlates at all with actually seeing the shit storm that is coming (i.e. educated or possessing gumption and thus better economic opportunities), it isn't surprising.
And to boot, I am getting close to the point where decent beer is going to just cost too much and I am considering giving up what is essentially the only vice I have left. I refuse to drink shit beer and inflation is really starting to bite ... damn near 20 bucks for a decent 12 pack up here!
Regards,
Cooter
18 Packs of Molson Ice are 18 bucks around here, buck a beer and high Alcohol %!
Brew your own brandy wine (it is a style of beer) and you can get 10%+ for less than a buck a bottle.
What percentage of that top 10% of drinkers holds a steady job?
withdrawn
I gave up on beer a long time ago. Vodka on the rocks is my current theme. I only have one every night. In a 16 oz. tallboy. Purely for medicinal purposes, of course.
The tallboy do save on the back and forth !!!
"clear alcohols are for rich women on diets"
-Ron Swanson
I'm part Russian.
In the same way that Elizabeth Warren is part Native-American (Or Obama is a natural-born American). Because it suits my needs at the moment.
always wanted to know who was buying all that kamchatka (best selling liquor in ohio). i figured it was kids and broke-ass alcoholics with no taste. i guess that's still not as dumb as buying "premium" vodka (oxymoron). but for chrissakes man, get yourself a decent whiskey.
You need to shoot for Professional Russian. Don't try this at home.
I knew I liked you. Cheers, Mate!
If you ever have the opportunity to try this pick a bottle up. Ive had several vodkas in my life and I have to say this is the best. http://www.covingtonvodka.com/about.html
Titos Vodka made in Austin Texas. The smoothest you'll ever taste!
I pity the other 90%. They KNOW that things won't get better at 20:00.
LOL. On the other hand the KNOW they won't feel like shit at 0600-1200.
Mostly comedians.
What, too soon?
Not looting the liquor?
Exactly, extremely stupid chart and article. Who the fuck wrote this?
top 10% are those who remain standing when drunk.
Drink up!
Well, THAT explains our foreign policy.
as long as its organic, its fine.
I didn't think it was possible for even good alcohol to explan our bad foreign policy.
Well, that explains the absence of managerial attention but where did the fun go
How does this compare to Russia?
It is soviet tradition to consume Vodka in a troika. Made sense as a bottle cost three rubles or one ruble per person.
I have traveled over Russia and the Ukraine. Virtually everywhere there is a small 'kiosk' one person vending stand in walking distance of anyone that sells vodka or other cheap spirits. It is easier to find Russian Vodka, cigaretes, or chocolate than milk or eggs. Strangely there are no open container laws in the Ukraine and many young men may walk or stand around in public in Kyiv with a bottle of bear.
People where I live hand me beer out their car windows when I'm out walking my dogs. Mostly neighbors, but one guy was from the Dept. of Agriculture out checking moth traps - Leinie's too, not cheap tourist beer. :-)
I drank 14 beers the other day (2 at a bar and then a 12 pack at home).
Was awesome but no way could I do that every day. Every second day maybe!
A hard charging alcoholic never really sobers up between drinking sessions.
I just picked up a 6 pack and I'm on the first one. An na, I not joking. I just laugh at people that say I have a drinking problem. It's not a problem... I like it!!!
(of course I am jesting and excess drinking is a serious problem for those out of control. Have seen it with my own eyes. Quite sad. Not joking about the 14 beers and the 6 pack I just started though)
POTUS swallows special sauce
I'm glad I'm keeping up with the best of the best! I'll drink to that tonight.
I have this sudden feeling to have a drink.
No, that number is wrong because it includes the Kock/Koch/Coke(?) brothers wine investments.
You know how many glass of wine there are in a million dollar bottle of fake bore-dough?
Yes, it's the Koch Brothers, and BUUUUUSH and Cheeeeeeeney and The Tea Party and my mom and dads fault I am living in my dads garage shitting my Spiderman Underroos wishing I could afford to drink and have sum puuuuusssy whaaaaaaaaaa!
I guess the teen bopper bots get queued up on "Top Ten Percent" and automatically belch out something something blah, blah, "Koch Brothers"
Being German and Irish...I can see the truth in this....in fact I am just now getting ready to go down to the bar...lol
Long 3-d liver printing.
The Liver is EVIL and it must be punished !!
My liver has nominated me for the humanitarian Nobel Peace Prize ever since I stopped doing customer sales meetings at sake bars
I suck!. Been practicing daily for decades and only make it to 7.
From that chart it looks to me like only about 1/2 of Americans can afford to drink.
I consume about (2) gallons of tap water per day... Trying to rehydrate all the lost fluids from the "vampire Mosquitoes" that drain me every night...
Yen Cross, -- I take a 'thumbnail' now and again; http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=30e078d3-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&sfb=1&itemguid=3269e3a7-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5&ccd=IFF003&mr:trackingCode=7E49C464-3C81-E211-BA78-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA&mr:device=c&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=41692491523&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=86810363923&gclid=CNKEmpWYj8ACFStgMgodsjQA-A
I'll drink to that! >hic<
edit, dumb comment
Amateurs.
Really?!?? let me see: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 5.....ah, I'll just send in the results tomorrow...ok?
Proffesional drinkers are the ones that can say "enough"
The novices are still deeply involved in R&D.
Research and Destruction, when one is too many and twenty ain't enough.
+ 1 for R&D comment, truth there.
Too much is never enough.
Having spent a fair amount of time with men in recovery this is not really a joking matter. When you cry with the 45 year old man who has destroyed his body, cannot walk and has limited use of his hands due to excessive alcohol use then it gets very real.
The 10-12% number may be correct, unfortunately the cost to society far exceeds this amount. Even more destructive is the generational sin that often results.
sschu
Im an alcoholic. Sober for five years by the grace of God. Simply awful for the last year i was drinking. I feel bad and have great respect for anyone battling an addiction.
I am following along your path. Almost two by the grace of God.
Thats wonderful! One day at a time, Bearing. I dont know how I'd be able to process what i read on ZH daily if i was still slamming vodka and gin everyday. Best of luck, friend.
Thank you, brother.
"Now we can choose the sort of thoughts that we entertain. It will be a little difficult to break a bad habit of thought, but it can be done. We can choose how we will think--in point of fact, we always do choose--and therefore our lives are just the result of the kind of thoughts we have chosen to hold; and therefore they are of our own ordering; and therefore there is perfect justice in the universe. No suffering for another man's original sin, but the reaping of a harvest that we ourselves have sown. We have free will, but our free will lies in our choice of thought."
-- Emmet Fox, 1932
* * *
Easy for me to type, much harder for me to put into practice.
Love you guys, but after 20 years off, got cancer & surgury I figured life is too short. I am very careful not to drive or get upset although ZH helps get me there. I know.. the not yet..but it's not yet. Yet.
Which pretty much confirms the belief that 10% of the population are alcoholics.
<Spoken with some conviction by a recovering alcoholic......me.>
keep fighting the good fight. my problem wasnt drinking everyday, so much as my tendency to go waaaaay too far every once in a while. someone like me could be a good person for years and years and then fuck it all up in one night. just got too risky for me....
I have had many trips to Russia and the Ukraine. Alcoholism there has the same bad outcome to health and family happiness. Averaging 10 drinks a day is deeply alcoholic. Early death, divorce, business failure, not necessairely in that order. Free will is a bitch for an alcoholic.
This is really a bullshit article and it's getting the (non)attention it deserves. The "decile" of the top 10% refers not to income groups, which is the thrust of the headline, I believe, but to drinkers in general.
In other words, at the lower end of adult "drinkers" are the iddy bitty old bats who never touch the stuff, followed by those who imbibe infrequently, etc., on up to the 10% who consume the most booze, alcoholics, aka, college students, former philosophy majors and committed home brewers, and, oh, yes, rednecks.
So, if you consume between 0 and 3 drinks per month, you're average. The number 9 decile is consuming just over 2 drinks per day, which means I am above that, though nowhere near 10 per day, somewhere around 3-5 (I lose count), which, in the end, makes anyone who drinks more than 2.5 drinks per day, on average........ wait for it...... wait for it.....
EXCEPTIONAL!
(Made you all feel good, didn't I?)
I hear if you plug in a toaster, hug it, and then jump in to a tub you will have a lot more friends. IDK, maybe you should give it a try.
Hard to believe that a large portion of the population doesn't drink or drinks very little. Who are they? Everybody I know drinks more than 9-10 drinks per month. Relatives, friends, neighbors, all drink at least that much.
Well, if you don't drink you are stupid or not paying attention. ( or you used to but can't)
weed or pills?
I can't buy alcohol because as a ZHer I can't give those bastard taxmen any money.
If you don't know how to buy booze without paying taxes, you're not doing it right.
I wish I could afford to be an alcoholic!
I drank a bottle a belvedere friday night that was nice. Plan on doing this friday as well. 2 shots per large glass filled with ice, water and a shot of mio.
Sometimes I just do plain shots if i'm all about getting fkd up.
My other standby is a 20pk of budlite. Often laughed at as piss water.........well just so happens not very many people that drink the really stout stuff consume a 20pk of it. Not trying to brag i'm just saying. I had some bitch at the pool hall giving me shit about that and she was ready to bend over and open wide for me after only 2 of her dark beers. Works for me bitch.
There is likely a correlation (and possibly a causation) between one inequality and the other, which while not exact is responsible for cancelling out any bitch about inequality (i.e. - if you drink 10 drinks a day you are not likely in the top 1%, so your inequality of drinking is causing your inequality of wealth). Now I'm sure that there are a lot of trolls on here who are going to tell their story about hard drinking, fast living, big risk taking, mega-reward winning ... but tell it to the Marines, 'cause it don't happen in the real world. Yes, I've seen alcoholics who can hold enormous amounts of liquor and who are wealthy, but I've not seen them last too long. One or the other wins out, and it's usually the addiction and not the wealth. To all those here who posted that they were now clean and sober, you have my respect and my hope that you continue as part of the group that matters the most - those with control over their lives and some hope for their soul.
Very thoughtful and nice comment.
Faith, -- is that you?
obviously it is stressful fuking everybody out of their money...................
This is a perfect example of a stat that just doesn't fucking make sense. Come on ZH!
I am fortunate in being able to take my recreational beverages in my coffee cup. I'm exempt from the stats.
Where is the chart of alchohol consumption since 2008 vs S&P when you need it...
okay i'm part of the wrong 1%
Consumption is what makes the world go around! 6.06
Fresenius (FMS). buying income and revenue up net income down.... can a dialysis company sales guys be drunk? Hey it either 2 drinks a day (65 month) goes right to 10 drinks a day (316 month).... Is it me or is big data counting drinks or purchases?
Vote up!
0Vote down!
0Fresenius (FMS). buying income and revenue up net income down.... can a dialysis company sales guys be drunk? Hey it either 2 drinks a day (65 month) goes right to 10 drinks a day (316 month).... Is it me or is big data counting drinks or purchases?
I'm on the far left of the chart so don't bother me, I'm always grouchy.
So that's where all the livers for transplant are going.
From whence comes this data?
Another chart showing inequality! There's inequality! Some people drink more. Let's vilify them and create a welfare program to bring up the bottom 3 deciles in line with a more equitable distribution.
Didn't you know that inequality is the root of all social evil?
In Russia beer wasn't even considered an alcoholic beverage until 2011. Step up your game, America.
The chart says 10% of the US population are alcoholics.
Shitty chart. Sad face.