[jsbdk]

That limit wouldn't work in many countries.

[fuzxi]

Perhaps many countries have alcoholism problems.

[ipaddr]

15 drinks a week doesn't make you an alcoholic. That's a Puritan viewpoint not a scientific one.

I don't drink at all anymore but when I was younger 15 beers in a week wasn't some magic alcoholism line.

[eurasiantiger]

Because those countries are either under the fiscal control of Big Booze (taxes), or they are under control of criminal enterprises (usually from neighboring country)

[taurath]

Or the culture is such that people regularly use alcohol both for pleasure and to avoid their emotional issues. Real men don’t have emotions, and if you’re feeling them then it’s better to knock back a few glasses then to express them.

[eurasiantiger]

And why do you think such a culture exists? Did it always exist? What is it influenced and kept up by?

[taurath]

Machismo is a really big area of study.

[eurasiantiger]

Really? You’re ready to ascribe the entirety of problematic alcohol consumption patterns simply to ”man-drinking”?

That is intellectual dishonesty at its prime.

[taurath]

Your theory is big booze and government corruption creates a problem of alcohol. Mine is that culturally many people really like to drink as an emotional salve. I didn’t ascribe the entire problem to it, just offering an additional or alternative cause, of which there can and must be more than one.

Throwing around accusations like intellectual dishonesty sorta doesn’t help conversation.