I don’t think alcohol as “social lubricant” is unknown in rationalist circles, but let’s assume it was. Does that new information update the utility of alcohol enough to outweigh the costs? Statistics on this are still very influenced by COVID, but I’ve tried to pull data from 2019 where I could find it easily. This is not exhaustive.
The Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application estimates that each year there are more than 178,000 deaths (approximately 120,000 male deaths and 59,000 female deaths) attributable to excessive alcohol use
According to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 21.0% of suicide decedents have blood alcohol concentrations of 0.1% or more
The question I’m discussing here is not “is alcohol net good for society?” but “is it good for an individual to drink?”. See the Zvi and Tyler comments for the position I’m arguing against.
(I’m open to the point that alcohol is net negative for society / the world. In fact, I think that’s probably true. Regarding individual outcomes, I think:
Using alcohol is on average bad for individuals.
The average (mean) alcohol outcome is heavily skewed by the really bad ~10% tail, i.e. alcoholics and reckless drunks.
For the other 90% of people, using alcohol is on average good.
Using alcohol is on median is basically a wash.
If you consider only the people that enjoy the effects of alcohol, using alcohol is on median good.)
I don’t think alcohol as “social lubricant” is unknown in rationalist circles, but let’s assume it was. Does that new information update the utility of alcohol enough to outweigh the costs? Statistics on this are still very influenced by COVID, but I’ve tried to pull data from 2019 where I could find it easily. This is not exhaustive.
Per NIH[1]:
The Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application estimates that each year there are more than 178,000 deaths (approximately 120,000 male deaths and 59,000 female deaths) attributable to excessive alcohol use
According to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 21.0% of suicide decedents have blood alcohol concentrations of 0.1% or more
Per NHTSA[2]:
In 2019, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 10,142 deaths (or 28% of overall driving fatalities)
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/alcohol-topics-z/alcohol-facts-and-statistics/alcohol-related-emergencies-and-deaths-united-states
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/Publication/813120
The question I’m discussing here is not “is alcohol net good for society?” but “is it good for an individual to drink?”. See the Zvi and Tyler comments for the position I’m arguing against.
(I’m open to the point that alcohol is net negative for society / the world. In fact, I think that’s probably true. Regarding individual outcomes, I think:
Using alcohol is on average bad for individuals.
The average (mean) alcohol outcome is heavily skewed by the really bad ~10% tail, i.e. alcoholics and reckless drunks.
For the other 90% of people, using alcohol is on average good.
Using alcohol is on median is basically a wash.
If you consider only the people that enjoy the effects of alcohol, using alcohol is on median good.)