Some data on drinking alcohol

[The Straight Story]

Alcohol Consumption Connected to Education, Income
Friday October 24, 2003
A study by the Norwegian Institute for National Health has linked greater alcohol consumption to higher education and higher income. People who have more education and more money drink more than uneducated and poorer people, the research shows.

The Norwegian study, conducted between 1993 and 2000, found that there is not necessarily a connection between the people who have higher education and the people who have a high income, but both groups consume a more alcohol.

"The main function of this survey has not been to find out how much Norwegians drink, but alcohol consumption connected to people with little or high education," Bjørn Heine Strand told the press.

Overall, the study found that Norwegians increased their drinking between 1993 and 2000, but the increase is largest among the wealthy and Norwegians with higher education.

http://alcoholism.about.com/b/2003/10/24/alcohol-consumption-connected-to-education-income.htm

Drinking Alcoholic Beverages and Income

Women in the US who drink alcoholic beverages earn 14 percent more than nondrinkers and men who drink make 10 percent more than abstainers, according to an economic analysis published in the Journal of Labor Research. Men who drink in a bar at least once a month earn an additional 7 percent, for a total of 17 percent more than nondrinkers.

Research in several countries has found that those who drink alcohol earn more money. One explanation is that moderate drinking improves health, which in turn affects earnings (Hamilton and Hamilton, 1997).

The current study tested the idea that drinking increases social capital, which leads to greater income. Social capital refers to a person’s social characteristics, including social skills, charisma, number of friends and acquaintances, and other sociability factors that enable the person to reap both economic and non-economic returns from interactions with others.

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/inthenews/Etc/20061023164300.html

We need to tax it for the children...

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Sure thing.

And legalize pot and tax it, too. I don't have a problem with sin taxes, per se, but the taxes on cigarettes have gotten way out of hand and are regressive.

[The Straight Story]

2. And since data seems to show people who drink have more money...

Why not tax them instead of the poor? I guess because the rich set the rules.

[Donnachaidh]

3. And neither study says WHO funded the studies.

I wouldn't be surprised if it led back to any of the liquor producing companies.

[stillcool]

4. The one is a governmental institution...

http://www.fhi.no/eway/default.aspx?pid=238&trg=MainArea_5811&MainArea_5811=5906:0:15,4228:1:0:0:::0:0
About the Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Published 12.09.2008 , updated 16.09.2008, 14:10
One of the buildings in the NIPHThe Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) is a governmental institution placed directly under the Ministry of Health and Care Services. The NIPH acts as a national competence institution for governmental authorities, the health service, the judiciary, prosecuting authorities, politicians, the media and the general public.

...and the other lists where they got the data from...
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/inthenews/Etc/20061023164300.html

[old mark]

5. Now find some data on alcohol consumption and crime. nt

[The Straight Story]

6. I bet it is less than smoking and crime

;)

[Dr.Phool]

7. And, I thought that alcohol made me smarter.

I know that the more women drink, the better I look.

:beer:

[TahitiNut]

11. "Now, the question on the table is how drunk is drunk enough?"

"You see every drink of liquor you take kills a thousand brain cells. Now that doesn't much matter 'cos we got billions more. And first the sadness cells die so you smile real big. And then the quiet cells go so you just say everything real loud for no reason at all. That'ok, that's ok because the stupid cells go next, so everything you say is real smart. And finally, come the memory cells. These are tough sons of bitches to kill. "

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146984/quotes

[NV Whino]

8. Did anyone stop to think

that this might have to do with actually having the money to buy the stuff in the first place?

Educated > employed > money > buy alcohol
Uneducated > unemployed > little or no money > no amenities (AKA alcohol)

[JVS]

I agree. Especially for Norway, see below.

Other factors might include working conditions. I used to work 12 hour shifts 5 days a week, and even then a shift that was supposed to end at noon could drag out to 3 or even 4 if I got sent out on a job right before noon. I didn't have the time to drink on weekdays.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. They say a study allowed for that

It appears that people make more money because they drink. Research conducted by Dr. Pinka Chatterji of Harvard University and Dr. Jeffrey DeSimone of the University of South Florida demonstrates that higher income is not leading to drinking. That is, the larger proportion of higher income people who drink isn’t because they can afford to do so. Their research was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and alcoholism (NIAAA).

That study says:

We estimate the relationship between 10th grade binge drinking in 1990 and labor market outcomes in 2000 among National Educational Longitudinal Survey respondents. For females, adolescent drinking and adult wages are unrelated, and negative employment effects disappear once academic achievement is held constant. For males, negative employment effects and, more strikingly, positive wage effects persist after controlling for achievement as well as background characteristics, educational attainment, and adult binge drinking and family and job characteristics. Accounting for illegal drug use and other problem behaviors in 10th grade eliminates the unemployment effect, but strengthens the wage effect. As the latter is not explicable by the health, income or social capital justifications that are often used for frequently observed positive correlations between adult alcohol use and earnings, we conjecture that binge drinking conveys unobserved social skills that are rewarded by employers.

http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/12529.html

A surprising effect, that has me raising my eyebrows and stroking my chin. But, if we accept it as true, then presumably we should stop taxing alcohol, and encourage binge drinking so everyone gets those 'social skills'. :shrug:

[JVS]

9. That's not surprising about Norway. Their alcohol taxes are crushingly huge. The well off can...

afford it much better.

[TahitiNut]

10. The more brain cells one has, the more one has to work to kill them.

:dunce: :toast:

Do men drink more than women??

:hide:

[leftofthedial]

12. I oughtta be stinking rich

in addition to being stinking drunk

[NaturalHigh]

13. I'm all over this!

:toast:

[pleah]

14. Oh, fuck it!, I need a drink.

:evilgrin:

[Elidor]

15. "this survey has not been to find out how much Norwegians drink"

This is a great straight-line. I'm not going to touch it, however.