Why is alcohol so cheap?
I’ve written some bizarre posts, but this one is bordering on sinister. I hope it’s not perceived as political as I’m not mentioning any country overall (with the exception of one country at the start to show a comparison).
Tobacco in the UK is prohibitively expensive. I’ve never smoked, but a packet of 20 cigarettes is £10. Twenty years ago, it was common for people to smoke 20 a day, so that’s £3650 a year. Yikes! Smoking has definitely reduced due to the cost, and there will of course be health benefits in the future.
Whilst alcohol is expensive in pubs, it’s ridiculously cheap in supermarkets. A 2 litre bottle of cider, for example, can cost £2. You can drink double the recommended healthy limit for £2 a day!
It begs the question why tobacco was hit hard whilst alcohol is still so accessible.
Here goes. I’m not a conspiracy theorist (we hear that a lot right now), but do we think it’s in countries’ interests to have us all living to 90? Older people take up a disproportionate amount of healthcare costs, and whilst I’m in cynical mode, they probably don’t spend much or pay much tax.
It’s well known that excessive alcohol causes diabetes, high blood pressure and heart problems as well as liver disease. Why it’s so cheap then makes no sense. We have works of fiction such as Soylent Green (the film from the cynically-entitled book Make Room! Make Room!” I really reckon the availability of cheap alcohol is done for not too dissimilar reasons, i.e. to reduce life expectancy and old age care costs. Obviously, the flaw in my thought process are the huge costs to treat the conditions I’ve mentioned above.
Yes, it sounds a bit bonkers and deeply sinister, but does anyone else have a suggestion why alcohol’s so cheap?
If nothing else, it’s a good story to make people drink sensibly or not at all.