No, Will, people are not buying beer to pass the time on some lazy summer afternoon as they watch uniformed men play upon the emerald chessboard (average cost for a family of four $400), they buy beer - the cheapest of all alcohols - and drink it in heavy quantities to forget how miserable their lives have become. (May I add, you fucking moron).
Link here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070901934_pf.htmlSurvival of the Sudsiest
By George F. Will
Thursday, July 10, 2008; A15
Perhaps, like many sensible citizens, you read Investor's Business Daily for its sturdy common sense in defending free markets and other rational arrangements. If so, you too may have been startled recently by an astonishing statement on that newspaper's front page. It was in a report on the intention of the world's second-largest brewer, Belgium's InBev, to buy control of the third-largest, Anheuser-Busch, for $46.3 billion. The story asserted: "The industry's continued growth, however slight, has been a surprise to those who figured that when the economy turned south, consumers would cut back on nonessential items like beer."
"Non wh at"? Do not try to peddle that proposition in the bleachers or at the beaches in July. It is closer to the truth to say: No beer, no civilization.