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Aug 28, 2004 Teetolers cause other people to drink. No, I'm serious, and here is why. 90% of the population are at least social drinkers, 10% are teetolers. Of the 90%, 20% consume 83% of the alcohol. Compare this to Coffee drinkers. 54% of the population drinks coffee daily, but only 25% drink occasionally, leaving 21% non-coffee drinkers. Hmm, maybe the statistics are loosing you (the reader). Drink,,hard core users,,,Social users,,,non-users Alcohol,,,20%,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,70%,,,,,,,,,,,10% Coffie,,,,54%,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,25%,,,,,,,,,,,21% (sources: www.coffeeresearch.org/market/usa.htm, www.madd.org/stats/0,1056,1112_11_20,00.html) Maybe that makes it more clear. Almost three times as many people are hard core users of Coffee than Alcohol, but the vast majority of people will drink Alcohol just because the people around them are. OK, finally getting to the point, how many of the people who only drink socially only do so so that they are not perceived as "square." Maybe they don't want to be associated with the hard- core teetolers. Culturally, teetolers are the subject of jokes, they are perceived as knee-jerk fanatics who not only won't drink, but won't accept other people drinking around them. When was the last time you brewed a cup of Joe and got lectured about the dangers and how bad it was for you by a hard- core non coffee drinker? If the incidence of social use of coffee is normal for humans, about 10% of the population would drink alcohol socially (25%/54%=.46, 20%X.46=9.25%). Does that mean that 60% of the population only drink alcohol because they don't want to be associated with the vocal, annoying teetoler image? I don't think so, but it is food for thought. If teetolers really want to discourage others from drinking, they may need to back off and allow the negative image to recede. This would allow the portion of the population that currently drinks just to not be associated with teetolers to stop drinking. ------------ Email Aaron Baker: aaror@writing.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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