--- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> How bad is the situation? I read a shoet while ago
> that in the more booze-friendly areas of Scotland,
> average male life expectancy is somthing like 53.
>
> For some reason I see a lot fewer publically
> intoxicated people on the streets today than I used
> to. Maybe the police have started taking them in.
>
> Wendy Lyon wrote:
>
> >
> > --- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> > This can be illustrated by the seeming paradox
> that
> > societies that are more tolerant toward alcohol
> > consumption tend to have lower alcoholism and
> > related problems than societies that are more
> > intolerant.
> >
> > --
> >
> > I think Russia and Saudi Arabia are both glaring
> > exceptions! ;)
>
> And Ireland...
What I had in mind was mediterranean countries where attitudes toward alcohol consumption are more tolerant. Even kids drink. Yet alcoholism does not seem to be a big problem there.
I recognize, however, that Ireland and E. Europe are a good counterexamples, indeed. But keep in mind that I did not try to explain alcoholism rates. I used it as an example of my claim that informal mechanisms are often more effective in prenventing minor crime and delinquency than law encorcement and penitentiary.
Wojtek
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