> The issue is the social and economic costs of many's drinking habits.
"Many"? So you've got numbers to back up this assertion, or is this just another one of your "gut feelings", oh psychic one?
> It's really an > addiction.
So what? You can get addicted to just about anything that stimulates a pleasure response, from sports to food. It's possible to take just about anything to an unhealthy extreme.
There's a lot of shit that people do that has potential "social and economic costs". That guy riding a quad through some backwoods stands a good chance of killing himself, resulting in social consequences (a funeral) and economic costs (potentially increasing insurance premiums for everyone). People going skydiving also have the same risks. People who eat lots of food suffer social costs of being obese, and incur the same economic costs. Drinking is in the same category, as is smoking, but smoking is unique for the immediate and direct inconvenience it causes for non-smokers.
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