Young children have too much money. I (and the same goes for all my mates) couldn't afford to get drunk often at 16, so I didn't, simple as that. The will was there, just not the wherewithal.
Yup, my folks say the same thing as cpemma(sorry to lump you in with 'em cpemma ) Supposedly half pints were made to last entire nights. I guess I'd argue against the current "binge" drinking culture, except I can't because quite frankly, I enjoy the main aspect of it. Being drunk is fun. I guess more education should be invested into teaching people about how to know when they're likely to easily go over the limit, or when they will etc. - but overall I'm not sure you'll change the fact that Britons do indeed like getting drunk. What we could hope to change are the aggressive neds, who go from mildy aggressive at normal to silly little angry tossers after some pints. You ain't gonna change the overall habit I don't reckon, we've just got to improve at managing it.
Er.... I disagree. I'm 20, and I don't have that sort of money. Never have. I'm not one for getting drunk anyway, but even if I was, there is no way on earth I could afford to. Don't make assumptions and sweeping statements please. Its untrue and unfair.
Well, fortunately i have a mother who pays for my binges, but i dont go out to drink, i almost always stay by myself at home, so booze lasts twice as long, and ends up being fair cheaper than a pub or club!
Oh come on, you're so clearly wrong. It's extremely evidently true and it's perfectly fair given the fact that the majority of teenagers and young adults can obviously afford to go out and get drunk. If they couldn't, we wouldn't have all the problems with binge drinking and violence in our city centres every weekend.
It wasn't a sweeping statement, just a generalisation, and one which I'm inclined to agree with. Many people my age (18) have far too much money and waste a large proportion of it going out to clubs/pubs or having parties in which the only objective is to get wasted. Personally I've never seen the attraction in getting drunk intentionally. I enjoy drinking casually with friends and at home, but to me the enjoyment stops when I've had so much that I fall asleep or throw up. Hazel Blear's makes a good point that our drinking culture makes us look like every drink is our first, and a considerable amount of people drink far more than they should. Why every other country except us manages to do it well I don't know... <A88>
Like She said.. We're all modernised Vikings! Everyone knows the Nordic like a tipple just as much as we do
I think getting drunk is freakin' sweet (though people who get violent shouldn't be allowed to! Or any who sing "is this the way to amarillo?") edit: ok, im gonna elaborate - I dont particularly like booze. If everybody wasnt drinking id not drink either... in fact no, thats a lie. Id drink gin and tonic forever, I love it - and the feeling of being drunk is awesome, and leads to many wonderous adventures. Why just the other week after 4 pints of gin and tonic and some blue stuff with vodka I went on an amaaaazing expedition into the local forest - it was FANTASTIC! theres nothing like getting drunk and going on crazy errands to make you feel alive Sure you might say "well why not go while sober?" - well then its just walking, not an adventure at all So in a sweeping statement im going to say... Booze -> Amazing stories of adventure and peril -> Sex Booze leads DIRECTLY to sex - no 2 ways about it
Twenty does not make you a "young child" with disposable income but no financial obligations and expenses. Things are different if you don't have to pay for your own transport, food and housing. As spec points out: go to the city centre on a Friday and Saturday night and you'll see plenty of twenty-year olds who obviously have found some serious money to spend. I don't know how they do it either --I earn substantially more than them and I couldn't afford it. But then again I have a mortgage and pension scheme to keep up, bills to pay and no parents to feed me or bail me out in a tight spot. And Bogopimp: booze leads directly to poor judgement and increased risk-taking behaviour, and generally making a **** of yourself. Again, just look around any city centre on a Friday or Saturday night. I don't see people having great sex or fantastic adventures; I see them getting into fights, getting injured in stupid accidents, puking their guts out and being carted off to either hospital or the police station... You don't need to be drunk to have fantastic adventures (or great sex). It's all just about your frame of mind, you know?
I can go out on £10, have an awesome night out and enjoy myself, then have to carry people from taxis to their beds and make sure they get to sleep. I don't like it too much when people binge drink, the problem is when people know their limits but don't stop or slow down at all. Also people focus on drinking to become drunk is another problem. Most of it boils down to individuals frames of mind and opinions. If someone doesn't give a damn then they won't care how much they spew on people/places/floors or how many drinks they break. One thing that annoys me (old man moment) is when people think they've had a good night because they can't remember anything.
They cant afford it either, it's how students rack up thousands in debt: because they can't handle it and think an overdraft is free cash. I totally agree on the last line, it depends on who you are with. I HATE getting asking "why don't you drink" and feel I have to give a reason, like because I'm a young, white male I am obliged to drink alcohol. Doug: it's not an old mans attitude at all. The fact that they puked up, had to be taken home by other people, could have been raped doesn't seem to factor into it. How is that a good night again?
I'm saying old mans attitude because when I said it to a friend he said I'm an old man and need to get laid. He's true on one of those points.
Wish it was! I need some free cash! Yeah I know what you mean there. I usually get around that by being designated driver
I still hate the term "binge drinking" as this seems to imply mass drinking, when in fact it includes anyone drinking about 4 alcholic drinks in a night, now for a lot of people 4 drinks would be a slow night. Hazel Blears is correct about the UK though we drink to get drunk and no amount of extending licence hours or stopping happy hours in pubs will limit this. I also find it slightly silly, ok a lot silly, that a pub is not allowed to run a 2 for 1 happy hour promo any more but supermarkets are totally fine in selling large volumes at a loss to drag people into the shop. Guess it shows that supermarkets have a lot more clout than publicans and that they know what sells.
People react differently to alcohol - many lose inhibitions and become a lot more sociable; some become violent, giving drinkers a bad name. I personally love getting drunk every once-in-a-while. At Uni we would manage to several times a week, but now as I work 9-5/M-F I only find time to once a month. Money has to go a lot further when you've graduated - and my hangovers tend to last a whole day now.
This limit is not arbitrary but has been established on good medical grounds. Four drinks may be a slow night for some, but anything exceeding it does become harmful to your health. It is called binge drinking because it is --regardless of how people may wish to normalise it. Don't blame the label, blame the cyrrhosis. The two are not strictly comparable. If you buy ten bottles of alcohol in the supermarket, the reasonable expectation may be that you do not drink them all on the spot. But if you buy a drink in the pub and get one free... well, you are not going to keep that one for tomorrow, right? It basically encourages you to drink twice as much.
However if you were to have 3 drinks every 12 hours, you might well be an alcoholic but you would not be a binge drinker, unlike the person who once every 3 months has 4 pints on a friday night. It's this differentiation I dislike. This might well be the argument supermarkets use and I might believe them if the promos did not run at time of expected high consumption in short space of time, ie world cup and christmas. Its the promo time that changes the mass consumer from married female buying beer for week to youngish males in twos and threes buying for themselves. Happy hours in pubs could also be split amoung people we used to buy 2 drinks and get one free and split amoung three of us.
This is not surprising, its down to the way kids are bought up, and, more importantly its peer pressure, now, personally i dont drink...at all, and im 18 and ok im probably extremly boring, and i dont care, but at the end of the day, teens see it as being cool, a way to look cool in front of there freinds and if it means they get caught by the Police and they get away with a small fine they and there freinds see it as being cool and hard that they got away with a £20 fine, which to me is wrong, teenagers need to be taught moral values, and the true value of money. I dont drink which means i have loads of money to spend on decent things like new PC hardware and Holidays, things i wouldnt be able to do if i was wasting it down at a pub. Sam
You would be an alcoholic. The term "binge drinker" is not synonymous with "alcoholic" but refers to a specific pattern of consumption. Still, when you buy n number of drinks in the pub it is necessarily to drink them in that one sitting. When you buy n number of drinks in the supermarket you can spread them over as long a period as you want. I agree with your argument to some extent: it is basically a commercial strategy which encourages drinking just as happy hour in the pub does. But in the supermarket you still have some form of retraint caused by the logistical distance and freedom of choice between purchase and consumption.
