[HN Gopher] Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas
        
       Author : simonebrunozzi
       Score  : 79 points
       Date   : 2021-04-02 11:00 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.sysselmannen.no)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.sysselmannen.no)
        
       | tyingq wrote:
       | Headline fooled me. To me quota usually means "you must do this
       | much", this appears to be a limit.
        
         | k__ wrote:
         | I only know this from AWS, where it means "limits".
        
           | jhugo wrote:
           | In some contexts it's a minimum - e.g. monthly sales quota
           | for a salesperson, or monthly ticket quota for a traffic
           | police officer.
        
             | jonsen wrote:
             | Wiktionary:
             | 
             | "A prescribed number or percentage that may serve as, for
             | example, a maximum, a minimum, or a goal."
        
           | pmiller2 wrote:
           | Disk quotas are common in all sorts of multiuser systems.
        
         | rorykoehler wrote:
         | I always understood a quota to be a limit. Only in sales have I
         | heard it used as you describe. For example look at EU milk
         | quotas.
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | There are lots of examples outside of sales. Diversity hiring
           | quotas, citation quotas for police, gender quotas for board
           | of directors, survey quotas, productivity quotas, recruiting
           | quotas (military, MLM orgs, etc), electoral gender quotas,
           | factory production quotas, Amazon delivery driver quotas, and
           | so on.
        
             | rorykoehler wrote:
             | Fair point. I'm surprised I never thought about this before
             | today.
        
         | jmartrican wrote:
         | I think quotas work in both directions.... you have to do this
         | many in certain time, or you only get this many in certain
         | time.
         | 
         | Here is the definition....
         | 
         | :a proportional part or share
         | 
         | especially : the share or proportion assigned to each in a
         | division or to each member of a body
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | Yeah, perhaps my life experience just had a lot of the "have
           | to do this many" quotas, and the others were presented to me
           | as limits. TIL.
        
         | killtimeatwork wrote:
         | Interestingly, XIX century Poland has exactly the "minimum
         | amount consumed" kind of quotas of alcohol... It was legislated
         | by nobles who were producing alcohol from their grain and
         | figured they'd force peasants to but it from them, to
         | periodically extract whatever monetary surplus the peasants
         | (serfs) managed to build up. One of the result was of course
         | rampant alcoholism, since the peasants now owned buckets of
         | vodka and they figured they might as well drink it if they paid
         | for it...
        
           | eitland wrote:
           | IIRC that is _one_ of the most shameful things I 'm aware
           | that Norwegians have done the last few centuries, forcing
           | Sami people to take booze as part of the payment for their
           | work.
        
           | pmiller2 wrote:
           | Considering how the only other thing I can think of to do
           | with buckets of vodka in 19th century Poland is burn it, I'd
           | probably go with drinking it, too. I'm not even sure burning
           | it would work out well, either.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | cat199 wrote:
             | high proof alcohol works great in a lamp
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_burner
        
             | dahart wrote:
             | Vodka is great for washing clothes!
        
         | jrockway wrote:
         | Depends. I clicked through to read about mandatory alcohol
         | consumption, but thinking about it further, consider the case
         | where you have "1 GB of disk quota". In that case, it obviously
         | means that you can use no more than 1 GB of disk, it definitely
         | doesn't mean that you must use 1 GB of disk.
        
           | cpcallen wrote:
           | Wow: reading 1GB disk quota reminds me how far we have come:
           | when I was in university we got a base quota of 1 _MB_ (plus
           | additional amounts of varying sizes for each course we were
           | registered for, depending on how much space we were expected
           | to need, but typically totalling less than 5MB).
        
       | benbristow wrote:
       | Glad I don't live there, sod that.
        
       | cozzyd wrote:
       | In Kangerlussuaq (Greenland), the price of booze goes way up
       | after 6 pm.
        
         | r_singh wrote:
         | Interesting... how exactly does this work? Like Happy Hours? Or
         | do shop owners also have to pay more to distributors?
        
       | robert_foss wrote:
       | This sounds very much like the Swedish alcohol importation laws.
        
         | jonsen wrote:
         | You can bring a tax free quota into Sweden (and many other
         | places for that matter) but you can't _buy_ tax free inside
         | Sweden, can you?
        
           | seanmcdirmid wrote:
           | Airports often have duty free shops just inside customs, so
           | you technically might be able to on a return trip.
        
             | willowfine wrote:
             | Yes, this is possible and legal in Sweden. The other way to
             | obtain cheap alcohol is to take a cruise via the island of
             | Aland, which is not in the EU. If you plan to visit Aland,
             | make sure to pick a ferry that actually stops there as
             | opposed to just symbolically tossing out a mooring rope for
             | a few minutes to satisfy the legal requirements.
        
               | tricolon wrote:
               | Aland is in the EU, but the EU tax rules don't apply: htt
               | ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territori
               | ...
        
       | mortenjorck wrote:
       | For a sense of scale, the Svalbard archipelago has a population
       | of about 3,000.
       | 
       | Antarctica's seasonal peak is around 5,000.
        
       | abujazar wrote:
       | Norwegian here. The reason for the quotas is historical and were
       | put in place to limit miners' consumption of beer and liquor.
       | Interestingly there's practically no quota on wine, presumably
       | because miners didn't care much for that.
       | 
       | You can't buy wine and liquor at local stores in Norway Svalbard,
       | but there is a great selection in the state run monopoly stores
       | (Vinmonopolet). In Longyearbyen there's one called Nordpolet (The
       | North Pole, a pun on "pol" meaning both pole and being an
       | abbrevation for monopoly).
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too.
         | 
         | When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would
         | go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling
         | to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the
         | wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.
        
       | qwerty456127 wrote:
       | > Private individuals resident in Svalbard must purchase their
       | alcohol quota in Svalbard and are not able to import tax-free
       | alcohol from the mainland to Svalbard.
       | 
       | I doubt local shops have particularly good assortment to choose
       | from, do they?
        
         | Kiro wrote:
         | In Sweden the monopoly shops have a really good assortment
         | since they have no profit interest and can afford to provide
         | shelf space for less popular beverages.
        
         | thanatosmin wrote:
         | AFAIK Svalbard is weird in both immigration laws and a distinct
         | tax structure from Norway. My guess is it has to do with tax
         | avoidance schemes rather than consumption.
        
           | Clewza313 wrote:
           | Svalbard's legal status is deeply weird. It's administered by
           | Norway, but not subject to a lot of Norwegian law, and people
           | from all Svalbard Treaty signatories including the US can
           | legally rock up and work and stay as long as they like.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Treaty
        
         | Broken_Hippo wrote:
         | About the selection in the state shops: It is better than what
         | I could get in Indiana (US). If the local places don't stock
         | it, they'll order it for you, and it is really, really easy.
         | I'm gonna guess it takes longer to order to Svalbard, but it
         | probably isn't too bad either.
        
         | pcl wrote:
         | Throughout Norway, pretty much all sales of alcoholic beverages
         | over 4.7% happens through state-run liquor stores
         | (Vinmonopolet).
         | 
         | Their selection is pretty great, but obviously imposes limits
         | vs. a totally open import arrangement. And if a local store
         | doesn't have something in stock, you can order it for later
         | pickup, much like at a library with multiple branches. I don't
         | know how that works in Svalbard, since it's so remote, but I
         | wouldn't be surprised if they follow more or less the same
         | procedures.
         | 
         | Interestingly, since they are a single buyer for millions of
         | people, the Vinmonopolet purchasers get some great deals. And,
         | since it's state-owned and very regulated, there are rules
         | about how much they can mark up a bottle vs. their purchase
         | price. So, you see this weird phenomenon in which people from
         | elsewhere in Europe will fly to Norway to buy a case of some
         | vintage that turned out really well and as a result is super-
         | expensive everywhere else.
        
           | zwaps wrote:
           | Interestingly, almost all "plain" European beers have either
           | 5% or 4,9% of alcohol (Pilsners, Lagers etc.)
           | 
           | It seems this may also be a measure to boost local sales?
        
             | nso wrote:
             | You don't know a lot about Norwegian politics on this
             | subject if you'd even suggest that. In short it's a way for
             | the government to limit and control the damages associated
             | with alcohol consumption. While this would probably rub the
             | average american the wrong way, most norwegians, including
             | myself, approve of the system.
             | 
             | Other posters have given more detail but here is some
             | reading:
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinmonopolet#Foundation
             | 
             | https://www.vinmonopolet.no/social-responsibility
        
           | owenversteeg wrote:
           | Interesting! Do you have any examples of wines like that? I
           | tried to search and found nothing.
        
             | elygre wrote:
             | https://www.aperitif.no/artikler/frankrike-er-kanskje-
             | ikke-b... Is an article from 2015. It mentions Petrus 2012,
             | at that point available for nok 9500 at vinmonopolet, while
             | winesearcher.com had it at nok 22000.
        
         | Quarrelsome wrote:
         | same goes for Iceland, only place you can buy alcohol outside
         | of a bar is from a government shop that closes at 18:00.
        
           | kzrdude wrote:
           | Iceland has their own breweries and i think you can get very
           | reasonable beer, for example domestic ones
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | I can get very reasonable beer where I live... I make my
             | own beer, wine, and mead.
        
             | Quarrelsome wrote:
             | ye but you have to buy them from the government shop don't
             | you? They don't sell alcohol in corner shops like the rest
             | of the anglosphere.
        
               | dahart wrote:
               | I guess that's just for hard alcohol? Iceland has beer in
               | tourist shops at least, if not grocery stores. But in
               | tourist shops it's expensive enough that you wouldn't
               | want to stock up there. I saw individual bottles for $10
               | (cheap beer) and $20 US (nice beer), for example, at the
               | Gullfoss store.
        
               | rkjaran wrote:
               | Iceland does not have beer in tourist shops or grocery
               | stores. Alcohol is only sold at the state run monopoly,
               | bars and restaurants. What they sell at grocery stores
               | and tourist shops is non alcoholic or with a very low
               | (<2.25%) alcohol content, and they're mostly produced to
               | circumvent the ban on alcohol advertising.
        
               | kzrdude wrote:
               | Iceland is not in the anglosphere :)
        
       | fouc wrote:
       | What's interesting about this?
        
         | aequitas wrote:
         | I find the law that requires you to carry a firearm more
         | interesting: https://www.sysselmannen.no/en/weapon/
         | 
         | Being a remote town in the far north with unusual day/nighy
         | cycles does require some strange laws to keep everyone safe and
         | sane I guess.
         | 
         | Also, Tom has been there ofc:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJ-ze2-SqU
        
           | k__ wrote:
           | Gives me a bit of a Skyrim vibe, haha.
        
           | paranoidrobot wrote:
           | > I find the law that requires you to carry a firearm more
           | interesting
           | 
           | That's not quite what it says. Firearms are only a
           | recommendation.
           | 
           | > Due to the polar bear threat in Svalbard, anyone travelling
           | outside the settlements must be equipped with appropriate
           | means of frightening and chasing off polar bears.
           | 
           | > The Governor of Svalbard also recommends having firearms
           | with you.
        
             | bovermyer wrote:
             | There are levels of risk I am not prepared to accept. I'll
             | carry an assault shotgun, an assault rifle, and a dedicated
             | ammunition-hauling dog with me if I go outside a town in
             | Svalbard.
        
               | AdrianB1 wrote:
               | What is an assault shotgun, one painted black and with a
               | bayonet mounted? I think you can have something like this
               | in Fallout.
        
               | _bin_ wrote:
               | SPAS-12, AA-12, or similar? Or maybe he's referring to
               | one like the Ithica 37 with slam fire capabilities? The
               | guy really just needs a M1 Garand.
        
               | _bin_ wrote:
               | I hope not: although, say, an M16 is a good weapon, you'd
               | do better with something chambered in a full rifle
               | cartridge (e.g. .30-06) against a bear rather than an
               | intermediate cartridge
        
               | bovermyer wrote:
               | Alright, fine, then an FGM-148.
               | 
               | If a polar bear is charging me, I want his _ancestors_ to
               | feel what I 'm going to do to him.
        
               | Clewza313 wrote:
               | You can skip the dog. A polar bear can sprint at 40 km/h,
               | so if you're attacked by one, you'll be lucky if you can
               | squeeze off more than one or two shots.
        
             | ajmurmann wrote:
             | Interesting. When I visited a few years ago I was told that
             | you were required to carry a rifle outside of town to
             | protect from the bears and that a handgun wouldn't be
             | sufficient to protect from a mature polar bear. I guess the
             | guide exaggerated.
        
           | donw wrote:
           | Requiring citizens to keep arms was actually quite common up
           | until the 1800s, with some municipalities actually purchasing
           | firearms for residents, with the expectation that they would
           | be paid back as was manageable.
        
             | iso1210 wrote:
             | In which countries?
        
               | thrower123 wrote:
               | Nearly all of them, at least up through the end of the
               | Napoleonic Wars.
               | 
               | I believe it became less popular with the popular
               | revolutions of 1848 and the advent of universal
               | conscription.
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | I'm not a historian, but this doesn't match my
               | understanding; that true weapons like swords and
               | crossbows tended to be restricted, and peasants used
               | scythes, clubs, etc. instead.
               | 
               | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/268dmc/ho
               | w_w...
        
               | iso1210 wrote:
               | Arround 1400, the King proclaimed that "every Englishman
               | or Irishman dwelling in England must have a bow of his
               | own height", at one point Tennis was banned to give more
               | time to bow practice. By 1500s every man had to buy his 7
               | year old son a bow and teach him how to use it, and a
               | bow+arrows must be kept in everyones house.
               | 
               | Crossbows on the other hand were practically banned, but
               | this was more because a highly skilled longbowman was
               | more deadly
        
               | ceejayoz wrote:
               | That's fairly unique to England, though, whose military
               | power relied on longbows in a way not matched by rivals.
        
         | throwawayfire wrote:
         | Maybe that there is a customs border internal to Norway?
        
           | jonsen wrote:
           | Wikipedia on Svalbard:
           | 
           | "While part of the Kingdom of Norway since 1925, Svalbard is
           | not part of geographical Norway; administratively, the
           | archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an
           | unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by
           | the Norwegian government, and a special jurisdiction subject
           | to the Svalbard Treaty that is outside of the Schengen Area,
           | the Nordic Passport Union and the European Economic Area."
        
         | bbojan wrote:
         | Do you know of any other place that has quotas on alcohol
         | consumption?
        
         | axlee wrote:
         | Do you know a lot of places with monthly alcohol purchase
         | quotas?
        
           | jhugo wrote:
           | Well, there are not that many tax-free places. If they didn't
           | have quotas, there would no doubt be thriving businesses
           | buying alcohol in Svalbard and selling it in the rest of
           | Norway.
        
             | progre wrote:
             | Transport costs might put a damper on that. Also, it sounds
             | like it would also be subjected to import restrictions,
             | even if it's the same country.
        
               | jhugo wrote:
               | Smuggling is a thing, though. And transport costs tend to
               | reduce as volume increases, and alcohol is a popular
               | product...
        
               | progre wrote:
               | Well, if we are talking illegal activities, Norway shares
               | a long, marginally patrolled border with Sweden where
               | alcohol is significantly cheaper. So if you are into
               | smuggeling, I would try that first, before trying to
               | arrange something up in the arctic sea.
        
               | willowfine wrote:
               | Pre-covid, this was a thriving and mostly legal industry.
               | There are quotas on how much may be imported for personal
               | consumption.
               | 
               | Meanwhile, the Swedes go to Denmark for cheap alcohol,
               | the Danes go to Germany, the Germans to Poland and the
               | Poles to Ukraine. Thus Ukraine is the fixed point of the
               | alcohol-flow function. This theorem was proven when I was
               | a PhD student in a research group which contained a
               | Norwegian, a Swede, a German, a Pole and a Ukrainian - we
               | extrapolated the Danish connection point.
        
           | vincnetas wrote:
           | Qatar has "alcohol license" for residents. Not sure about
           | that but what i heard your employer has to say how much you
           | get to drink.
           | 
           | https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/qatar/lifestyle/food-
           | drink/...
           | 
           | EDIT: yes article mentions this
           | 
           | The letter must be addressed to the Qatar Distribution
           | Company, be stamped and signed by an authorised person within
           | the company, and include the following information:
           | The applicant's position within their company       The
           | applicant's basic salary. The word 'basic' must be used.   To
           | get a permit a minimum salary is needed (4,000 riyals or
           | 1,100 US dollars)       Whether the applicant receives an
           | accommodation entitlement or has free accommodation
           | Whether the applicant is married       When applying for a
           | permit an individual must fill in an application form, pay a
           | returnable deposit and state their religion
        
             | shrikant wrote:
             | I remember something like this in Oman as well, back when I
             | lived there in the late 80s/early 90s.
             | 
             | Looking at the situation now though, it looks like it might
             | be a very tiny bit more liberal, in that you still need a
             | "personal consumption licence", but the quota appears to
             | have been done away with.
        
         | murrayhenson wrote:
         | Maybe that the quotas are very low, or that there are quotas at
         | all. Mainland Norway definitely doesn't have quotas like this;
         | rather alcohol is simply made to be quite expensive.
         | 
         | When I read this my first thought was something like, "I bet
         | that those who don't drink are making a bit of profit on the
         | side by selling their allowances." However, I'm guessing that
         | for Svalbard's dedicated drinkers ...they're finding a way
         | around the import restrictions.
         | 
         | It would be interesting to hear how folks deal with the
         | restrictions by someone that lives on Svalbard or has spent
         | significant time there.
        
           | jhugo wrote:
           | > Mainland Norway definitely doesn't have quotas like this;
           | rather alcohol is simply made to be quite expensive.
           | 
           | If you don't mind the higher price I'm sure you can still
           | import it as long as you pay the duty. (The linked page
           | merely says that you cannot import _tax-free_.) So ultimately
           | it 's the same situation as in (the rest of) Norway, but with
           | some small allowance of cheaper tax-free alcohol. If they
           | didn't have the quotas, people would arbitrage it.
        
             | giantg2 wrote:
             | Can you just brew your own?
        
               | tyldum wrote:
               | Brew you can, distill you cannot.
        
           | alistairSH wrote:
           | _Maybe that the quotas are very low_
           | 
           | 24 bottles of liquor, 6 bottles of fortified wines, nearly
           | 300 cans of beer, and unlimited wine annually is low? I'd
           | hate to be the liver of anybody drinking that much.
        
             | gregkerzhner wrote:
             | Annually? Everything sounds high when you say it annually!
             | 
             | Looking at the numbers on a smaller scale, if you don't
             | count the unlimited wine, the monthly quota works out to be
             | about 2.2 drinks / night - about 1.5 shouts of liquor and
             | less than 1 light beer a night.
             | 
             | Thats a pretty resonable amount of alcohol to consume -
             | just slightly higher than the 14 drinks / week maximum that
             | many health authorities recommend.
             | 
             | How would you feel if the government regulated how much
             | sugar or salt you can eat, how many hours of video games
             | you can play, or maybe even forced you to exercise 400
             | hours (per year)?
        
               | croshan wrote:
               | > How would you feel if the government regulated how much
               | sugar or salt you can eat, how many hours of video games
               | you can play, or maybe even forced you to exercise (400
               | hours / year)?
               | 
               | That's actually an interesting idea... Not saying I'd
               | recommend it, but I'd be interested in how this affects a
               | population at a large scale.
               | 
               | Requiring physical activity might lead to population
               | demand for parks, more social interaction, less
               | isolationism, less conflict. And I've had times where a
               | hard limit on video games would've been nice.
               | Incentivizing a society to not fall to their vices
               | doesn't sound too bad.
        
             | jlawer wrote:
             | I believe for the Bathurst weekend (V8 Car race) in
             | Australia, people are limited to a carton of beer or a
             | bottle of liquor a DAY per person.... Not sure if that says
             | more about the Svalbard limits or my countrymen.
        
       | Quarrelsome wrote:
       | Anyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent
       | alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent)
       | suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being
       | contributing factors.
        
         | marvin wrote:
         | I can't speak for Svalbard specifically, but Norway in general
         | has a long history of heavily taxing and regulating alcohol.
         | 
         | Alcohol stronger than beer can only be purchased at the state-
         | run "wine monopoly", alcohol percentage stronger than 60%
         | classified as narcotics and illegal, opening hours for alcohol
         | sale (beer included) are mandated to be much shorter than for
         | stores in general, no alcohol sales allowed on public holidays,
         | Sundays or Saturdays after 3pm/6pm (wine+ and beer,
         | respectively), etc.
         | 
         | Culturally, you can trace this back to the Protestant Christian
         | heritage, where excessive alcohol consumption was considered
         | both sinful and destructive. I'm certain there was something to
         | the heavily negative view on the health- and socioeconomic
         | effects of alcohol at the time (combined with poverty, hunger,
         | cold, dark winters, isolation and the need for cooperating to
         | thrive in such a climate), so I don't think it just boils down
         | to unsubstantiated religious feelings.
         | 
         | There is still consensus that this is a good way of doing
         | things, although the minority Christian conservative political
         | wing are loudest about it.
        
         | fulafel wrote:
         | Norway seems to have the lowest consumption per capital among
         | the Nordics: https://www.statista.com/statistics/693505/per-
         | capita-consum...
        
         | RocketSyntax wrote:
         | iceland taxes the heck out of it, and there are only a few
         | stores where you can buy
        
           | jfengel wrote:
           | But not, weirdly, at the airport. And they're proud of that.
           | There are all kinds of signs up about how you can buy it at
           | the airport on arrival and carry it in, duty free.
           | 
           | I paid $20 apiece for shots at a bar in Reykjavik. I paid
           | (IIRC) $5 for a bottle at the airport.
           | 
           | (The bars are especially expensive. I'm told that all the
           | Icelanders pre-game before going out drinking. If you plan to
           | drink while in Iceland, pick it up on your way in.)
        
         | AdrianB1 wrote:
         | You are mostly right, it is to prevent alcoholism like other
         | attempts are still made in different countries to limit or ban
         | soda and sweet drinks, cigarettes, some drugs, some or all
         | guns. It is in general good for public health and bad for
         | average IQ.
        
           | C19is20 wrote:
           | Why would preventing alcoholism be bad for average iq?
        
             | jonsen wrote:
             | Could mean users are mostly low IQ and will die early.
        
             | AdrianB1 wrote:
             | Brain needs challenges and stimulation to develop; when
             | people are taken care of, average IQ of society decreased
             | over time. If you check the numbers there are several
             | metrics where we regressed in the past hundreds of years,
             | including reaction time, testosterones production,
             | fertility etc. Good times create mediocre people and the
             | times were better and better in the past centuries, while
             | people got more and more mediocre.
        
               | byproxy wrote:
               | What's wrong with being mediocre?
        
         | pmiller2 wrote:
         | Some of the hardest drinkers I know are Finns. I'm not sure
         | exactly why that would be, _i.e._ why Finns might drink more
         | than Norwegians or Swedes, but this has been my observation.
         | Keep in mind, n=low (I 'd have to think about it, and I don't
         | want to expend the brainpower right now).
        
           | jonsen wrote:
           | The statistics link in a sibling comment says Danes consume
           | most among the nordics.
        
             | hollerith wrote:
             | OK, but Finns aren't Nordics.
        
               | jonsen wrote:
               | Oh they are:
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_countries
        
               | hollerith wrote:
               | Oops, my bad. (Finns are not considered _Scandinavians_ ,
               | and I conflated Scandinavians with Nordics.)
               | 
               | Thanks for correcting my mistake.
        
               | jonsen wrote:
               | Rather common mistake, even among Scandinavians.
        
             | Thlom wrote:
             | The Danes drinks every day while the Finns drink it all in
             | one sitting.
        
       | k__ wrote:
       | Sounds rather much for one person in one month.
        
         | randomdata wrote:
         | I imagine that's the idea. Enough for one person with some
         | margins. If you start buying beyond the quota, i.e. presumed to
         | be buying for other people, then you'll have trouble.
        
         | thrower123 wrote:
         | A month? You couldn't keep a Royal Navy seaman in grog for a
         | week on that.
        
         | PaulHoule wrote:
         | 2 cans a beer a day would not be excessive by most standards,
         | that would add up to 60 cans a month.
         | 
         | 24 cans of beer consumed in one sitting would be excessive.
        
           | k__ wrote:
           | Is it really so common to drink alcohol every day?
        
             | Cthulhu_ wrote:
             | Depends on culture, both national and local. In some it's
             | very common (like my dad has a beer every day after work,
             | or France / Italy where a glass of wine at lunch is not
             | uncommon).
        
               | nextlevelwizard wrote:
               | Light wine was specifically exempt from the rules
        
             | Semaphor wrote:
             | There was a post here where having a cocktail after work
             | every day (in NYC IIRC?) was mentioned, the consensus
             | seemed to me like that is a normal amount while for me that
             | would have been too much even when I was a student and
             | could tolerate a lot more alcohol (of course, purely by
             | amount I'd have made it up on the weekend).
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | I suspect it's not uncommon to find people who have wine
             | nearly every day. Someone who is drinking two beers on many
             | days is likely to have six on some days, making up for the
             | odd day that they have zero.
             | 
             | The actual quota is less than one can per day, though,
             | which seem too strict to me (with respect to a government
             | restriction, I mean).
        
             | kzrdude wrote:
             | A glass of wine after work to wind down is pretty popular
             | no? (Culture: scandinavia)
        
             | dean177 wrote:
             | It's not in the UK at any rate, the average varies between
             | 12 and 17 units of alcohol per week depending on age with
             | most of that falling on Fridays and Saturdays. 2 cans of
             | beer per day works out at 28 units, so is certainly
             | substantially more than average. I would guess there is a
             | bubble affect though, most of my friends drink only on
             | special occasions line parties, and regular drinking at
             | home would be perceived as alcoholic behaviour by most of
             | them.
        
           | matsemann wrote:
           | I almost feel the opposite: drinking every day is too much.
           | One night out once a month is okay. (not drinking 24 bottles
           | a night, though, except when celebrating Russ)
        
             | k__ wrote:
             | Same here.
             | 
             | Last time I drank alcohol was pre-COVID. I only drank 1-3 a
             | month and only 2-4 beers and 2-4 shots.
        
             | agentwiggles wrote:
             | I've known plenty of daily drinkers and I have no idea how
             | they do it. If I have even one drink I can notice the
             | effects the next day. Not that I'll be hung over per se,
             | but just a little more tired, little less focused, little
             | less patient with my kids.
             | 
             | So, I don't drink very often (I don't abstain completely
             | either). Drinking every day seems like something that would
             | really take a lot out of me.
        
         | donw wrote:
         | It's one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer per day, swapping
         | for wine on Sundays.
         | 
         | More than I get through, but low for a serious boozer.
        
         | iso1210 wrote:
         | 24 cans of beer? Depending on the size that's between 8 and 14
         | litres a month, about 1.8-3.2 litres a week. At 4% that's at
         | most 13 UK units per week (assuming you buy large cans) --
         | guidelines are 14 units per week. For say 330ml cans of Tiger
         | it's 8 units a week, that's not a lot for one person.
        
           | nextlevelwizard wrote:
           | Maybe you are confusing the word "guideline" here with actual
           | recommendation. You are not suppose to be drinking 14 units
           | per week. You are not suppose to even be drinking every week.
           | In any case you still as much light wine as you can
           | reasonably consume. 2 bottles of liquor and half a bottle of
           | fortified wine on top of your beer. If you consume even that
           | much everyone month I'd be calling you an alcoholic.
        
             | iso1210 wrote:
             | Someone drinking an average of 6x 33ml cans of 4.3% beer a
             | week would not be called an alcoholic in any normal
             | conversation. That's 4.4 litres of alcohol a year - less
             | than half the US intake (9.8l), less than Norway (7.5l) and
             | would fit well in the bottom half of countries by alcohol
             | intake.
             | 
             | The ability to drink other things (scotch, wine, etc) is
             | irrelevant if you only drink beer.
        
               | nextlevelwizard wrote:
               | If only there was people who only drank one beer everyday
               | and never more, however it is these same people who have
               | the need to drink one beer every day that drink most at
               | parties and get togethers or just in general over the
               | week end.
               | 
               | Maybe it is just the lives I've seen ruined by alcohol
               | that as made me grumpy about alcohol consumpsion, but I
               | would be concerned if someone is drinking enough to have
               | a hangover every weekend.
        
               | iso1210 wrote:
               | I don't see how you could get a hangover from drinking
               | 6x330ml cans of beer in a single evening, let alone
               | across a week. You evidently have a chip on your shoulder
               | over alcohol
        
         | bluescrn wrote:
         | Seems designed to move people from beer to wine and spirits? Or
         | into home brewing?
         | 
         | Probably a thriving market in non-drinkers selling their
         | quotas, too
        
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