{"id":9874,"date":"2015-12-18T12:19:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=9874"},"modified":"2015-12-18T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:19:06","slug":"why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/","title":{"rendered":"Why can&#8217;t a country&#8217;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Consider\u00a0the costs to a society from alcohol:\u00a0(a) productivity lost due to drunkenness, (b) drunk driving, (c) hangovers, (d) resources spent on <a href=\"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/13\/missoula-rape-and-the-justice-system-in-a-college-town-a-k-a-majoring-in-partying-and-football\/\">legal proceedings following drunken sex on campus<\/a>, and (e) time and money lost due to medical care required because of excessive alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n<p>It is hard to find someone who would say that U.S. GDP is higher because of the alcohol we consume.<\/p>\n<p>Wikipedia puts out a helpful <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption_per_capita\">&#8220;List of countries by alcohol consumption per capita.&#8221;<\/a> Shouldn&#8217;t we expect that, assuming these numbers are relatively\u00a0stable over decades and centuries, a rough inverse correlation between drinking and productivity?<\/p>\n<p>Yet the correlation does not seem strong. The Greeks drink less than the Germans or Swiss. Italians drink about the same amount as the Japanese. Egypt is not famously productive and yet they consume minimal alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>If drinking is as destructive as we are told why can&#8217;t we see it in the stats?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consider\u00a0the costs to a society from alcohol:\u00a0(a) productivity lost due to drunkenness, (b) drunk driving, (c) hangovers, (d) resources spent on legal proceedings following drunken sex on campus, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why can&#039;t a country&#039;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why can&#039;t a country&#039;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Consider\u00a0the costs to a society from alcohol:\u00a0(a) productivity lost due to drunkenness, (b) drunk driving, (c) hangovers, (d) resources spent on legal proceedings following drunken sex on campus, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"philg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"philg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"headline\":\"Why can&#8217;t a country&#8217;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption?\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\"},\"wordCount\":165,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\",\"name\":\"Why can't a country's productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why can&#8217;t a country&#8217;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\",\"description\":\"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e\",\"name\":\"philg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2047,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"philg\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why can't a country's productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why can't a country's productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","og_description":"Consider\u00a0the costs to a society from alcohol:\u00a0(a) productivity lost due to drunkenness, (b) drunk driving, (c) hangovers, (d) resources spent on legal proceedings following drunken sex on campus, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/","og_site_name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","article_published_time":"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00","author":"philg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"philg","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/"},"author":{"name":"philg","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"headline":"Why can&#8217;t a country&#8217;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption?","datePublished":"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/"},"wordCount":165,"commentCount":13,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/","name":"Why can't a country's productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption? - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-12-18T17:19:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/why-cant-a-countrys-productivity-be-predicted-by-alcohol-consumption\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why can&#8217;t a country&#8217;s productivity be predicted by alcohol consumption?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/","name":"Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog","description":"A posting every day; an interesting idea every three months...","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/448e4e6a0ae9105741a06dcf62cee50e","name":"philg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg","width":2047,"height":2560,"caption":"philg"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20210525-philip-greenspun-sea-turtle-release-scaled.jpg"},"url":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/author\/philg\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paokyZ-2zg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}