According to the World Health Organization, the global consumption of alcohol has been stable since 1990, however, the drinking patterns in rich countries have changed. In the article Alcohol pricing: Mulled whines, the author has given some examples about European young people indulging themselves in drinking outdoors to get drunk. Across much of the rich world, bingeing has become a common drinking habit that people are drinking greater quantities in a single session. Naturally, this shift in drinking patterns from moderate intake only with food to bingeing has boosted the demand for alcoholic beverages in rich countries. Besides, those developed countries have the highest GDP per capita in this world. People there are able to and are willing to spend more on the alcoholic beverages.
It might be good news to the alcohol industry, but it does not sound so good to the governments. The change in the drinking habits has brought not only an increase in demand, but some undesirable social consequences as well. The article gives detailed figures about the negative outcomes resulting from the overuse of alcohol. The drinkers are having long term health problems and are probably facing the threat of death while the whole society has to pay for the increasing road accidents, violence, public order offenses and even murders. The economic loss and the decline in social welfare caused by the alcohol problems are so severe that policy makers wish to address these issues by curbing the alcohol consumption.
The industry has taken some measures to encourage responsible drinking such as stepping up education campaigns and licensing premises. Despite these, health campaigners have asserted that alcoholic beverages are simply too cheap in many cou...
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...ram 1, the consumer surplus is the same in two situations, which is the area C. However, the producer surplus is reduced to the area F under taxation. This comparison between price floor and taxation shows that when consumers have the same surplus, producers under taxation are worse off than they are when a price floor scheme is in effect.
In general, both price floor and taxation will cause loss in consumer surplus and producer surplus. Both buyers and sellers of alcohol will suffer from the economic loss caused by the government intervention. Even responsible drinkers are being punished in both cases while the effects of reducing undesirable social issues brought by drinking problems still remain questionable.
Reference:
Alcohol pricing: Mulled whines (2013, December 21). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-12-21.
Worsnop, R. L. (1997, March 14). Alcohol advertising. CQ Researcher, 7, 217-240. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
Economic returns in the global market place have been influenced by trends in wine consumption. Figure 2 shows a trend of decreasing wine consumption from 2007 - 2011 in most old world countries while new world countries were increasing their consumption. This is due to the diversification of alcoholic beverages in the old world countries and the growing wine popularity in the new world
In the contents of this paper, four points of view will be discussed on an extremely controversial issue that has an effect on a large percentage of citizens in the United States. The issue at hand is whether the legal age to consume alcohol should be lowered from 21 to 18, and will state a pro and con side, as well as 2 stakeholders for each side of the argument. The stakeholders on the pro side are as follows: Underage consumers of alcohol, businesses that sell and the companies that produce alcohol. The people on the con side of the argument that would want the legal age to remain at 21 include State and Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, as well as the demographic of Parents that would prefer to keep their children from being exposed to alcohol at a potentially young age. As you continue to read the stakeholders opinions and arguments will be explained, after which the author’s personal opinion will be advanced. After doing my own in depth research on the topic, the legal age to consume alcohol should remain at 21 as set by the United States Congress when they passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (NMDAA) in July of 1984. This act punished every state that allowed persons below 21 years of age to purchase and publicly possess alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by ten percent. (National Minimum Drinking Age Act) This caused all fifty continental U.S. states to set their legal drinking age to 21, and it has remained there for thirty years.
Alcohol plays a major role in society today. It is constantly being in our minds through advertisements, whether its commercials or
Despite all the efforts put into the prohibition of alcohol, the law failed miserably due to lack of enforcements and the disrespect for the law by criminals. The prohibition was supposed to improve the country’s social problems but it only led to the rise of powerful criminals.
In some cultures, there are situations that involves drinking. These include: birthday parties, New Year’s festivities, graduations, weddings receptions, Fourth of July, Christmas and Mardi Gras. In these holidays, people usually drink in excess to have a good time and celebrate. Different countries specialize in different types of alcohol, such as: the Italian have really good wine, Mexico is known for beer and tequila, Ireland is famous for beer and whiskey, Japan has their own beverage called Sake, and the United States is known for beer, wine, and whiskey. In these cultures, drinking alcohol is an acceptable type of celebration that teenagers even participate in. Not all alcohol consumed is in celebration. Therefore, “the top 20 percent of drinkers consume approximately 30 percent of all alcohol drunk over a 12-month period” (Grant 290).
Alcoholic beverages have been around for more than 8000 years and despite the World Health Organisation claiming that the global consumption of alcohol has remained roughly the same since 1990, the main groups who do drink are now drinking a lot more heavily. This is shown in the article, Alcohol pricing: Mulled Whines et al. (2013) where it explains how binge drinking was once a rarity in Spain as alcoholic beverages were only consumed mildly with food. However, nowadays during the night at the Plaza de Espana in central Madrid it is now flocked with many groups of people who have been drinking on a binge which results to vomiting and mess on the streets. Pitts (2010) explains that the social benefits associated with drinking alcoholic beverages include that it ‘produces a sense of relaxation, wellbeing and even euphoria in individuals, which enhances their enjoyment of whatever activity they are participating in’, also it can help ease stress and make you more confident in your actions. However, alcohol also has social costs as The Economist et al. (2013)
This article is aimed towards a large study to estimate the global burden of disease attributable to alcohol. The article tries to identify the relationships between average volume consumption, patterns of drinking, disease, and injury outcomes. The article also gives many numbers to back up its points.
More males than females are affected by alcoholism, but drinking among the young and among women is increasing. Consumption of alcohol is apparently on the rise in the United States, as is the total alcohol consumption and prevalence of alcohol-related problems in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. This increase is paralleled in other countries, including developing nations. After 1980, however, consumption remained relatively stable in many western European nations.
One of the effects of alcoholism are economical effects. In today’s world alcohol does not come cheap and can cost you whole lot money, but If you drink excessively it can cost you a lot more money. In the article, “Social and Economic Problems Linked to Alcohol Use,” points out “Apart from money spent on drinks, heavy drinkers may suffer other economic problems such as lower wages and lost employment opportunities, increased medical and legal expenses, and decreased eli...
There is a need for the introduction and implementation of new drunk driving laws by the legislature, because presently the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient. The continuous rate of drunken driving fatalities makes a case that the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient and makes a call for stricter laws. According to Valenti “countries with strict drunk driving penalties have a far lower incidence of accidents than the United States (1). The United States being a first world country is weak in enforcing strict punishment for drunk drivers. Valenti is emphasizing on the fact that the united States need to improve their present laws and be firm in enforcing these new laws. There is a need for the United States to improve on their severity of its drunk driving penalties just the way the other part of the world have done and this is giving them a reduced rate of drunk driving fatalities. The claim of the leniency of the United States drunk driving laws is further stated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this is a prominent body when it comes to the issue of drunken driving fatalities. It claims that the drunken driving laws are severe enough. “Despite great strides in awareness, education and enforcement in the last two decades the United States still has one of the most lenient drunken driving standards in the world”. (NHTSA of existing laws. There is a need for stricter laws to be introduced as the United States ranks behind the world when it comes to effort to combat drunk driving and more efforts need to be put in place by the implementation of harsher laws so as to reduce the high rate of repeat offenders and first time offenders.
It is unfortunate that many people within our society and worldwide suffers from the affects of alcohol addiction. There are many issues associated with this addiction and many times it’s not only the victim that deals with the addiction but also the people in close association with the individual. Alcohol addiction can afflict anyone and knows no limits of its damage that it can do to a person’s life or the people in their lives. Most importantly are the ones whom seek help for their addiction as it becomes a lifelong healing period for them. It has become clear that constant consumption of alcohol leads to addiction. It has also become clearer with the laws and policies that have been drawn up to combat drunk drivers that it is not a normal thing to do anymore as was thought to be normal in the late 60’s and early 70’s. This is not normal behaviour and it becomes clearer as the laws for drinking and driving is enforced by law enforcement officers. It is a duty for addiction workers to help in the aid of these problems and its laws and policies that help in putting a stop to some of the problems that arise from this addiction.
Consumption pattern in the Philippines is shifting over time. Once, the main priority for expenditure is on food, then education and health. Now, part of the expenditure pattern of an average Filipino is to spend a portion of their income on leisure and relaxation. Part of leisure expenditures are the buying of alcoholic beverages. And one of the newest entrants in this commerce is the wine industry. It has posted the fastest growth rate of 15% in 2005 among the alcoholic drinks. The population now has increasingly warmed to wine. It has shifted from the mass spirits (beer) to the more sophisticated, affordable and healthier alcoholic beverage.
Alcohol abuse is the most common problem, nowadays. In fact, majority of people drink alcohol repeatedly to the point where they have difficulty to stop. Statistics show that, as much as, “40% of college students report drinking five or more drinks in one episode” (Walters & Baer, 2006). Alcohol has become more popular over the years as advertisements, simultaneously with commercials of it, filled the media. It also is easily accessible and cheap in comparison to other psychoactive substances. On the other hand, alcohol safety awareness programs are barely noticeable. My research will present how alcohol and its abuse gets into people’s lives and how it influences their physical and mental health, as well as, social existence.
The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.