The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I've been seeing a lot about this lately.

Apparently this is due to a lot of things:
- alternatives to booze, like gummies
- tariffs/trade-war caused boycotts from Canada
- young people are drinking less, in general
- less social stigma for non-drinkers
- COVID created a 3-year gap in new bar-culture
- death of the microbrewery craze

I don't drink a lot, anyway, but I happen to see less alcohol in my day to day than I did before.  A lot of the culture has died down where I live.  I'm old, so I'm out of bar culture, but it just seems to be less of a draw than it was 10 years ago.

How about you?  Are you drinking less or more?  What about your friend groups?

I hope THC eats alcohol's lunch when it comes to recreational drugs.  Alcohol is far more dangerous and problematic.

(I don't drink or do drugs)

I am drinking much less now than I was about four years ago. Much of that comes from my local hangout closing down. I play in a pool league but not as many nights as I used to and sometimes go without having anything to drink. It's much easier getting up for work these days.

There is a huge glut of wine and booze everywhere in the world, to the point where everyone is trying to work out where to move it without damaging their critical markets.

It's basic supply and demand economics... and the supply has become a massive oversupply globally. The younger generation not taking it up is the cherry on top.

The reasons for that happening are complex and political, as well as to do with age demographics, and the basic thing that (without being an addiction) this is a luxury item that people will shed when there's less money coming in... that includes being part of dining out where any drink is marked up at least 50-100% retail, which is a major part of this.

While I'm sure gummies have some effect, the younger generations are also having less sex and overall social time with each other. Mean Total Testosterone has been dropping since the 80s but has dropped over 25% in the last 25 years. Consequently, screen time and BMI are at an all time high. 

Yes, I forgot to mention this.  Thanks for the reminder.  The general cost of living is way up, specifically on non-essentials like food and rent, so I think that booze (especially in bars) is the first thing to go, so that's just adding to it.

Historically the worse the economy the more people drank.

AI's answer on the subject -
"Yes, economic downturns often correlate with increased alcohol consumption, particularly heavy drinking and binge drinking, as people cope with stress, job loss, and psychological distress, though some studies also suggest overall consumption might decrease due to affordability issues, showing complex, mixed results depending on the group and type of drinking. Economic hardship, unemployment, and social disadvantage are linked to more alcohol-related problems, but some consumers also switch to cheaper alcohol or drink more due to increased free time, challenging older ideas that people simply drink less when poorer."

I was thinking what you're saying CF, but I think that it decreases bar culture, even if it increases in the home.

That's the part of it -- the social aspect of drinking seems to be less.

Something else that has been dropping since around the '80s (rate is per 100k people):

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Trend_of_Violent_Crime_from_1985_to_2022_%28United_States%29.png)

Maybe all the ads selling testosterone supplements are actually selling a worse society.

I would attribute the front part of the drop due to society becoming more aware. The sex and free love, drugs, and rock and roll of the 60s and 70s were a wild time. It really impossible to compare growing up today vs the 70 and 80s.

I saw a few days ago an article pointing out that murder is actually down 20% since last year which is the largest drop. It's suspected it can be attributed to the reduction in illegals and technology catching up to people. It's almost impossible to avoid being caught on cameras these days so repeat offenders are less likely to have that chance.

People don't want to hear this, but right or wrong, the drop in violent crime is directly related to abortion legalization.

It works both ways -- there are fewer people being born into situations likely to be criminals: broken homes, poverty, drugs, etc. -- and with legalization in the 70s, would have been coming into prime crime age in the late 90s.

The inverse is also true, in countries where abortion is made illegal, you can fast-forward about 16 years and see crime rates spike.

I learned about this is a very good book called Freakonomics.

A couple articles I read indicated that there was already a downtrend in alcohol consumption. Then the hemp bill that Trump passed in his first term opened the floodgates for THC gummies and equivelents to step in and take market share from an already shrinking alcohol market. It's no coincedence that the recent bill passed to reopen the government included banning the sale of THC products a year after its passage. The simple breakdown is that THC products were cutting into the already shrinking profits of big alcohol and big medical marijuana companies. So they threw a bunch of cash at the congress and got it banned. They try to frame it about "saving the children", but we all know that all they had to do is regulate it and require ID to purchase just like alcohol and tobacco already are.

As a side note, delta 8 gummies reduced my drinking greatly. A quarter of a gummy and a few very weakly mixed drinks and I'm good. No hangover and no feeling like shit the next day. It's interesting how the government finds problems where there are none.