Mother Gin
A while back I read a book called Gin: the Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva, from which I learned all kinds of interesting things about the Gin Craze (and parallel Gin Panic) in eighteenth-century London. I can't whole-heartedly recommend the book - it would have been better with fewer rhetorical flourishes and more serious analysis - but it should be required reading for anyone proposing measures aimed at cutting "binge drinking", or any other kind of drug abuse. Short version: whatever your idea is, they tried it in the eighteenth century, and it either didn't work or made the problem worse. Concentrate on fixing poverty instead.
One titbit that particularly surprised me was that it used to be common for workplaces to provide gin to their workers, with the cost of the gin being deducted from wages. No risk of being sacked for showing up drunk to work! However, I wonder if our descendants will feel the same about workplaces today which provide unfiltered Internet access to employees...
One titbit that particularly surprised me was that it used to be common for workplaces to provide gin to their workers, with the cost of the gin being deducted from wages. No risk of being sacked for showing up drunk to work! However, I wonder if our descendants will feel the same about workplaces today which provide unfiltered Internet access to employees...