Australia's alcohol idiot problem

[purple.cow]

I think it's past time the Australian government treated the problems associated with alcohol as it has been doing for a long time with cigarettes and smoking because while smoking is harmful to a person's health it usually only affects the smoker in a serious way themselves, whereas the problems arising from grog harm many around the drunken idiot.

Heavy drinking results in public brawling to the extent where death occurs to both the drinker and others they see fit to harm.

Heavy drinkers also seriously abuse kids and partners, both physically and mentally.

Alcohol abuse is a growing issue among our young people.

Alcohol abuse costs the country millions of dollars every year through loss of productivity due to the drinker chucking sickies because they are hungover or suffering ill effects of grog the following day.

Alcohol abuse results in way too many deaths and injuries on our roads every year.

alcoholics cost our public health system millions every years due to the serious issues it causes to the abuser.

I could go on and on about the bad side of grog, but it will start sounding as though I'm totally anti-grog if I do, when in fact I have absolutely nothing against anyone enjoying a drink or two, but I have a hell of a lot against what abusing the stuff causes.

So, I think it's time that the Australian government takes a far more serious approach to the subject.

To do this they should start off with banning all alcohol/and alcohol related products from public advertising - just as they did with smoking products many years ago.

Next they should slap on an immediate minimum tax price rise of 10% for all alcohol and alcohol related products, to be followed up within 6 months with a further 10% price rise on the lot.

These price rises should also hit the home grog making products market too.

additionally all consuming of ALL alcohol products should be totally banned from all public venues and licensing hours over the entire country should be reduced to far more reasonable hours, say midnight in all clubs and pubs etc.

Do you think I'm goping over the top?

OK, you may think so, but I'm sick to death of seeing the results of alcohol abuse at all levels in this country, and I can see no good reason why my tax dollors should go toward fighting a losing battle against the problems arising from grog abuse.

I've also been forced to attend too many funerals of innocent bystanders killed due to bloody idiot's bad habits while they walk away from it all almost Scot free.

[i-need-a-martini]

You made your point clear acacia but it's not a lucid one.

You think people drink because we have a macho and anti-intellectual society? Or that if we taught our kids to worship philosophers instead of footballers, we wouldn;t be in this mess?

Too simplistic I think. 

[**meep**]

According to statistics, Australians consume less alcohol than those in many EU countries.  Too tired to look for them now...

I flooded my house today so am a bit tired after cleaning up................

[acacia_pycnantha]

You didn't understand what I said. You didn't get my point at all.

I said that because we have such a bogan anti-intellectual culture here in Australia, with emphasis on sporting heros rather than on literary or other arts type heros, philospohers etc, then that is what causes the trouble when people drink.

Australians, like germans, and the french and the italians might still drink, but BECAUSE we don't have Culture in the real meaning of the word, then that is what causes the alcohol-related problems in our young people.

[*elizabeths-mum*]

Immanuel Kant was a real **bleep**-ant who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table. ..

David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine who was just as sloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach 'ya 'bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently **bleep**.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, after half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day!
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
And Hobbes was fond of his Dram.
And René Descartes was a drunken fart:
"I drink, therefore I am."
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's **bleep**.

[*elizabeths-mum*]

Just adding some culture. 😄

[acacia_pycnantha]

If it wasn't so real, it's be funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw4PHUALBfk

[**meep**]

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@acacia_pycnantha wrote:

You didn't understand what I said. You didn't get my point at all.

I said that because we have such a bogan anti-intellectual culture here in Australia, with emphasis on sporting heros rather than on literary or other arts type heros, philospohers etc, then that is what causes the trouble when people drink.

Australians, like germans, and the french and the italians might still drink, but BECAUSE we don't have Culture in the real meaning of the word, then that is what causes the alcohol-related problems in our young people.

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I understood what you said but did not comment because I only wanted to address one point that Martini made.

Australians are not 'cultured' therefore we have alcohol problem.   The culture needs to chance, children need to be taught Philosophy at primary school age.  You have used Germany as an example.  I came accross this article from 3 yrs ago.  I doubt the situation has improved dramatically and the point is, why was the problem there in the first place?

The number of alcohol- fuelled acts of  violence by youths in Germany has seen a stunning increase over the last decade, a new study released on Monday showed.

One of the nation’s top criminologists, Christian Pfeiffer, told ARD that police statistics and studies on unreported crime show that Germany has a “massive alcohol problem among young people that has trended upwards” compared to other nations.

The head of the KFN criminology research institute of Lower Saxony also referred to one of the institution’s studies that polled some 45,000 youths nationwide to find a direct link between violence and alcohol consumption. Particularly brutal attacks, such as the beating death of Dominik Brunner at a Munich S-Bahn stop last year, are often alcohol related, he said.

Pfeiffer encouraged a blanket alcohol ban for young people under the age of 18, which he said would help reduce violence. Current law allows children to begin buying beer and wine at age 16. But an increasing number of European Union countries are implementing an 18-and-old alcohol law, ARD reported.

http://www.thelocal.de/20100201/24949

The question is WHY?

Sport has always been a big part of German culture.  Some even consider it to be the greatest sporting nation.  Is there a connection???   Why has the problem worsened??

[***super_nova***]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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As a child of Italian parents, I drank wine with dinner from a young age. It was just a part of my life. But my parents made it clear that drinking was an important part of my social education but being drunk was disrespectful to them, my friends and myself.

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Absolutely, I too allowed my daughter to have a sip as a child, when very young she would get bit of wine very watered down, when older (16+) she was allowed would have a 1/2 glass.  It was not about "allowing"  she understood about effect of alcohol, and as she was not prohibited from having a drink she had nothing to rebel against.  Alcohol was and  is part of our life, but she never seen us falling down drunk. 

She got drunk once, at a sleep-over party when she was very young; I was actually astonished that alcohol was at that party as the father was the local cop.  But somehow the kids had several bottles of spirits.  Anyway, that was a good lesson, my daughter learned that excess of alcohol and mixing drinks does not end up very pleasant. 

It is not that kids see their parents drink that makes them binge drink; it is the attitude of community, and also maybe it points to deep seated problems.  When I was growing up it was accepted wisdom that people drink to forget.  Kids do not feel optimistic about their future.

[siggie-reported-by-alarmists]

Serving alcohol to young children? Watering it down?

You might have been serving alcohol to a child who has the "Alcoholic Gene".

Why give children the taste for it at a young age?...... For what purpose?

Giving alcohol to children  is illegal for good reasons.

[**meep**]

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@siggie-reported-by-alarmists wrote:

Serving alcohol to young children? Watering it down?

You might have been serving alcohol to a child who has the "Alcoholic Gene".

Why give children the taste for it at a young age?...... For what purpose?

Giving alcohol to children  is illegal for good reasons.

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Actually, its not.  As much as I am opposed to giving alcohol to minors, it is not illegal in Australia for children to consume alcohol in private residence with parental supervision, and it is in that context that this is being discussed here.