11 May Does money dictate alcoholism?
There are a lot of different ways we can explain drinking habits, for example; social life, depression, work or stress. However I believe that the one thing that determines all of these is money and how much people earn, compared to how much alcohol the consume.
There are a lot of contributing factors towards people drinking alcohol, however the one that I will be looking at and will explore is GDP per capita and all types of alcohol. I want to explore the differences between countries with higher levels of GDP and countries will lower GDP levels, to see if their alcohol match a theory of lower GDP, higher Alcohol consumption and higher GDP and more controlled levels of alcohol drinking. I have based this theory of the Prohibition in the USA during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Why this time?
After The Wall Street Crash in the 1929, The USA’s stock markets crashed, causing the economy to dramatically drop to levels that made money almost worthless. In Germany (Who had already been experiencing the depression before the crash) Come to a point were their currency become so worthless and people were either having to take suitcases full of worthless money to buy milk and eggs or were either simply using bank notes, as a way of fueling their fires of a night time. Back in The USA men were drinking in large quantities and becoming late or missed work. President Herbert Hoover therefore banned alcohol in the USA, in-order to combat the high levels of drinking, It is this theory that I want to explore to see, if people in countries with lower GDP per Capita, are drinking in higher qualities, or are larger economy, with larger disposal in-come more likely to drink more,
What did I fined out?
Guatemala who are ranked 151st on the GDP per Capital table, alcohol level were also the lowest in consumption. The same can be said for the UAE. a country that has been climbing the GDP table over the last 20 years, due to the oil reach lands and wealthy investors,. This fact does correspond with the theory of countries with GDP not drinking in large quantities. I also must point out that the UAE population is 80% Muslim, a religion that prohibits its people from drink alcohol. Therefore to say that a larger GDP is the main reason for people in the UAE for drinking less, may not be completely true.
France had the largest level of all types alcohol being consume but fell to 4th on the GDP per Capita, this again does not match The Great Depression Theory. Instead goes towards another point of perhaps culture, being that a more influential factor in the about of alcohol being consume.
Will it seems that money is not the most deciding factor in the amount of alcohol that a countries consume and maybe even more influential is in-fact religion. The key example in this is the UAE, how have the highest GDP, but were one of the lowest in alcohol consumed.
