[templar]

There was a Harvard study a while back that looked at the risk of DEATH against alcohol consumption.

Not exactly wha I mean. I'm talking all benefits vs. all problems from consumption of alcohol. What would the risk of death be of all alcohol consumers vs. non conusmers (including things like auto accidents and getting drunk and assulitng a cop who shoots you). Add in all legal problems, broken families, the generational mental health effects of growing up in drunken homes, etc. My guess is that our society would be a lot better off without alcohol than with it.

[mc5cents]

My guess is that our society would be a lot better off without alcohol than with it.

Um, I believe that has been tried in this country. The results were not good. More people died of "lead poisioning" especially in certain parts of Chicago during that great "experiment".

[Uncle Miltie]

Hard to measure the "value" of mental health. You're nuts or not, and that can be somewhat or very harmful. There are not social "utils" that can be counted up for such an analysis. Only feelings about relative levels of varying outcomes.

That's why death is a useful measure. It is absolutely measurable and provable.

Cheers!