Re:America has a drinking problem
by spoonjim on Tuesday June 01, 2021 @05:38PM
(#27361693)
I think the US is a land of "extreme" personalities so I would guess that across a broad range of metrics (alcohol consumption, wealth, number of text messages sent per month), the ratio of the Top 1% to the median is probably higher in the US than in most other countries that the US considers "peers" (i.e. Western Europe, Australia, and Canada).
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Statistics as detailed as "alcohol consumption by percentile" are hard to come by, but the data doesn't point to armchair just-so psychology like this.
Using some proxies for level of extreme drinking: The US isn't in the top 15 for binge drinking and is below the OECD average[1], and is ranked 50th globally for alcohol deaths (with far fewer than all 3 of OP's mentioned countries). This is despite a healthcare system with more gaps _and_ much higher risks from drunk driving due to being sparse and more car-oriented.
[1] www.statista.com/chart/amp/5357/the-worlds-worst-countries-for-binge-drinking/