New Study shows drinkers have higher social capital, earn more

College Life
1

<p>from: <a href=“http://www.reason.org/news/alcohol_use_091406.shtml[/url]”>http://www.reason.org/news/alcohol_use_091406.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>News Release</p>

<p>Report: Drinkers Earn More Money Than Non-Drinkers
Social drinkers who hang out in bars bring home even bigger paychecks</p>

<p>Los Angeles (September 14, 2006) – Numerous studies have shown moderate alcohol use can have important health benefits and now a new report finds drinking can help your wallet too.</p>

<p>Drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more money at their jobs than nondrinkers and men who drink socially, visiting a bar at least once a month, bring home an additional 7 percent in pay, according to a new Reason Foundation report by economists Bethany Peters, Ph.D., and Edward Stringham, Ph.D.</p>

<p>“Social drinking builds social capital,” said Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University. “Social drinkers are networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their Blackberries that result in bigger paychecks.”</p>

<p>The study finds that men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers and women drinkers earn 14 percent more than nondrinkers. However, unlike men, who get an additional income boost from drinking in bars, women who frequent bars at least once per month do not show higher earnings than women who do not visit bars.</p>

<p>The study, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Labor Research, suggests that the growing wave of anti-alcohol legislation at state and local levels will have harmful effects on local economies and individual finances. Efforts to impose massive tax increases on alcohol, to restrict alcohol sales through zoning laws, and prohibit alcohol advertisements have all been stepped up in recent years.</p>

<p>“We’re quick to ban beer at sports stadiums and festivals. The legal blood alcohol level is dropping everywhere, and we’re barraged with overhyped warnings about binge and underage drinking,” Stringham said. “Instead of fear mongering we should step back and acknowledge the proven health and economic benefits that come with the responsible use of alcohol.”</p>

<p>link above has link to full text pdf file of the report</p>

2

<p>HA. Take that sobriety.</p>

<p>Just goes to show how all those nights spent hunched over in front of your computer studying instead of out having a good time DON’T pay off in the real world.</p>

3

<p>After reading it I think they put a little too much stock in a more quantified version of social capital focusing on the number of relationships, whereas a lot of the readings I had done in undergrad (my Bachelors is in sociology) put social capital more in terms of qualities. Social capital thus is more about who you are rather than how many people you know. The two of course are certainly intertwined as if you are simply better at being in group/social situations then you are likely to know more people which of course helps.</p>

<p>I wonder how the fact that individuals in certain high paying fields (medicine, dentistry, law, etc) are more likely to abuse alcohol might play into this data. I honestly think that if I had gone on to grad school in sociology I would have done research like this.</p>

<p>This was my favorite line:</p>

<p>

</p>

4

<p>thats a BS argument :rolleyes: you don’t have to drink to be successful</p>

5

<p>Correlation does not equal causation.</p>

<p>I agree that networking helps earnings but you don’t have to drink to make friends.</p>

6

<p>Usually if you have more money you can go out more. This would include going out to bars. On the other hand, I can attest to the fact the nondrinkers do not get invited out most of the time. Usually it is just for one drink so you don’t have to be a binge drinker just a social drinker.</p>

7

<p>Citan, did you read the article? Of course you don’t have to drink to be successful (if you had read it, you might have noticed that the greatest correlation to high income was education level), that’s not the point. The article simply says that those who drink on average earn significantly higher salaries - that’s all, nothing about success in there.</p>

<p>jeopardy, you’re right, correlation doesn’t equal causation, but had you actually read the paper, you might have seen that their literature review does an adaquate job of providing solid research for the conclusions that 1)drinking increases social capital when put in a quantified definition (drinkers have larger social networks), and 2) larger social networks increase the number of job opportunities/wages for an individual. This study thus is only really connecting the dots, and in turn looking at a specific type of drinking activity (bar-hopping as indicative of drinking with a social intent).</p>

<p>Had the authors taken a more qualitative definition of social capital like I had suggested and that I have seen in other articles, then drinking would more likely be a marker for social capital. The causation would not have been clear, but since the authors went about it the way they did, their conclusion is valid.</p>

<p>The point isn’t that you have to drink to make friends, but that those who do drink make friends “easier”.</p>

<p>Sweetny, perhaps you’re right, the data collected didn’t appear to contain enough information to make analysis of that hypothesis possible. I’m not sure the exact study one could do to test your hypothesis.</p>

8

<p>Clearly this doesn’t take into consideration socially inept drinkers such as yours truly.</p>

9

<p>Factor Donald Trump into the stats under ‘abstainers’. That average would go way up.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>beat me too it.</p>

<p>… people who make more money have more extra money to spend on things like fancy drinks out.</p>

11

<p>yyyyyuuuuuuussssssssss. bottoms up.</p>

12

<p>"HA. Take that sobriety.</p>

<p>Just goes to show how all those nights spent hunched over in front of your computer studying instead of out having a good time DON’T pay off in the real world."</p>

<p>There are those rare few people who have “a good time” completely sober. Who’d’a thought!?</p>

13

<p>Peach, you’ve also ignored the article. The data presented within puts it in pretty simple terms that if you are an abstainer, you don’t earn as much money as those who don’t. It’s not a matter of having a good time sober, it’s a matter of salary…</p>

<p>And that’s the key point - the data show that ANY drinking is correlated with an increase income. The problem with the arguement put by soccerguy and sweet is that, those who don’t drink AT ALL (total abstainers) receive an earnings penalty. Yes, those with more money have more discretionary income, which may lead to them drinking more often, but - at least in this study - drinking is a binary - either you drink or you don’t…

</p>

<p>So the data by being set up this way is able to take care of the issue raised on increased spending money. I believe it highly unlikely that someone who simply lacks the funds necessary to go out for a drink would label themselves a complete abstainer - particularly in the context of the question. Further, your arguement that increased incomes means greater discretionary income to spend on alcohol is dependent on the assumptions that 1) cost is the ONLY deterrent to alcohol consumption for the overwhelming majority of abstainers (enough to be statistically significant), 2) that individuals who lack even modest levels of discretionary income view alcohol as a luxary item, and aren’t even willing to spend $5-10 on the occasional six pack (you can get a 30 pack of Miller High Life for $14 at most grocery stores in my area…). It’s not like we’re talking about a plasma TV here or vacations, or even cable TV.</p>

<p>That’s not to say that the income doesn’t come into play in regards to social drinking by “bar-hopping” as it most certainly could. But in such a question, we’re no longer comparing non-drinkers to drinkers since it’s already been established that any drinking is correlated with increased income when compared to abstention.</p>

<p>PS: I’ve found it very intersting that people try to counter an article being published in a peer review journal, without presenting any relevant evidence of their own…</p>

14

<p>you’re right, I did ignore the article</p>

15

<p>Guess I’ll be poorer than I thought I’d be as an elementary teacher. Cuz ya know, those 4th grade teachers who drink get along so much better with their students.</p>

16

<p>Hahaha, actually, they probably do</p>

17

<p>As one of my really good friends (industrial education major) once said…“I won’t encourage students to drink, in fact I’ll discourage it, but I have to be honest when I say I couldn’t get through life without alcohol…”</p>

18

<p>Like some of my family members, my body really can’t process alcohol well, so I guess if I want to do some networking for my future I’ll just go to the bar with them, buy something and have a sip (or just not drink it at all) and still socialize with them anyways.</p>