I should be rich by now

According to a new study funded by the Reason Foundation (a libertarian think tank) published last week in the Journal of Labor Research, folks who drink alcohol earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers. I don't happen to subscribe to that journal, but it doesn't look like a particularly rigorous scientific study. Their hypothesis is plausible enough, though: that social drinkers have a competitive advantage because they are "out networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their BlackBerries that result in bigger paychecks."

Damn. I'm still using an old analog Palm Pilot. Which is to say that I write phone numbers on my hand. If I don't upload them right away to yellow sticky notes, they're gone in no time, what with all the condensation on the beer bottles.

Maybe I'd make more money if I had a BlackBerry.

There's nothing in the brief report of this study that I read here that indicates how the study was done, but it looks like they simply compared 'drinkers' to 'abstainers.' It would be interesting to know, for example, whether they made any attempt to control for quantity of consumption, and also whether 'abstainers' included both those who've never even tasted alcohol and those who don't drink any more on account of the holes in their freaking livers. Maybe I'll have to go to an actual library and look the damn study up.

Unfortunately, the report does state that the researchers also use the conclusions of their study to argue against efforts to curb alcohol use on university campuses.

from Agence France Presse, via snopes.com