IHT: Europes drinking problem
One has to marvel at the underlying logic of articles like this. What is being advocated is a state that should intervene to stop it's citizens from "unhealthy"* activities like drinking and smoking (and drugs in general of course), while leaving them free and encouraging them to be "productive". Where productiveness is of course meassured, not in creativity or the amount of sex you have, but in money: the GNP.
Now wealth brings comfort (and base securities without which we can't live) and I'm no enemy to comfort, not at all. Bring me my wine, please. But, as so often, what was suppposed to be an indicator for a desireable objective has become the desireable object itself: A fetish.
Nevermind that this kind of believe in productivity is one of the primary sources of "unhealthiness" in the world. A "healthy" body and a "healthy" mind (the very concept of which is worth it's own rant) are to be worshipped** for they are clean and unbroken, this healthy body can then be sacrificed on the altar of long hours and stress, and the healthier the mind and body the longer the sacrifice takes and the more "value" is created. How perfect if, as the socialists dreamt, the worker even identifies with the production process and isn't alienated from the produce of his work anymore!
Good managers have, of course, long succesfully incorporated these ideas.
The state is to leave the market and this one vice and virtue and fetish as alone as possible and is to withdraw support from or even limit all other gods.
Nevermind that in Europe Alcohol is not a problem but a culture, that the problem is the closing of hundred small breweries in Bavaria over the last decades. There is no room for a culture that does not conform with these ethics.
[/rant]
*Sorry for the profusive use of quotation marks and **theological metaphors.
One has to marvel at the underlying logic of articles like this. What is being advocated is a state that should intervene to stop it's citizens from "unhealthy"* activities like drinking and smoking (and drugs in general of course), while leaving them free and encouraging them to be "productive". Where productiveness is of course meassured, not in creativity or the amount of sex you have, but in money: the GNP.
Now wealth brings comfort (and base securities without which we can't live) and I'm no enemy to comfort, not at all. Bring me my wine, please. But, as so often, what was suppposed to be an indicator for a desireable objective has become the desireable object itself: A fetish.
Nevermind that this kind of believe in productivity is one of the primary sources of "unhealthiness" in the world. A "healthy" body and a "healthy" mind (the very concept of which is worth it's own rant) are to be worshipped** for they are clean and unbroken, this healthy body can then be sacrificed on the altar of long hours and stress, and the healthier the mind and body the longer the sacrifice takes and the more "value" is created. How perfect if, as the socialists dreamt, the worker even identifies with the production process and isn't alienated from the produce of his work anymore!
Good managers have, of course, long succesfully incorporated these ideas.
The state is to leave the market and this one vice and virtue and fetish as alone as possible and is to withdraw support from or even limit all other gods.
Nevermind that in Europe Alcohol is not a problem but a culture, that the problem is the closing of hundred small breweries in Bavaria over the last decades. There is no room for a culture that does not conform with these ethics.
[/rant]
*Sorry for the profusive use of quotation marks and **theological metaphors.
I think the key is moderation. There is no need to regulate alcohol in your production force because in a competitive work force, people will regulate themselves. For example, if you let your alcohol affect your job performance, you will lose your job to a person who drinks less. Although, if I get drunk as hell every weekend, but do not let it effect my job performance, but it does increase personal wealth, then it has performed it's task positively instead of negatively. Of course, this is all relative. If you have a work force of alcoholics, then you would need to regulate alcohol because nobody would lose their job due to alcohol affecting job performance.