For the regular boozer it is a source of great comfort: the fat pile of studies that say a daily tipple is better for a longer life than avoiding alcohol completely.
But a new analysis challenges the thinking and blames the rosy message on flawed research that compares drinkers with people who are sick and sober.
Scientists in Canada delved into 107 published studies on people’s drinking habits and how long they lived. In most cases, they found that drinkers were compared with people who abstained or consumed very little alcohol, without taking into account that some had cut down or quit through ill health.
The finding means that amid the abstainers and occasional drinkers are a significant number of sick people, bringing the group’s average health down, and making light to moderate drinkers look better off in comparison.
To illustrate your last point, Two Buck Chuck has won several awards over the years. It was literally $1.99 a bottle two decades ago and still sits between $2-4 most places.
Two Buck Chuck won awards because people assumed it would be worse than bottom shelf box of wine, and it was actually marginally better.
That doesn’t mean it tasted good, because it didn’t.
It was good for a $2 bottle of wine, but the $2 was doing the heavy lifting.
I look at it the same way I look at guitars. Epiphones are generally worse than Gibson guitars (debatable for some models and years, but generally). You can get a new Epiphone Les Paul Standard for just under $700. You can get a new Gibson Les Paul Standard for just under $2800. Is the Gibson $2000 better? Well, probably not, but to some folks it’s worth it.
I have guitars ranging from $100 garage sale specials that I’ve modified to be playable to a $3000 custom jobbie and honestly at my skill level there’s nothing I can do with a $500 guitar with a good setup that I couldn’t do with a $3000 one.
If your serious hobby or job isn’t wine and it’s not a gift, Charles Shaw is probably fine for a day to day wine (unless you just don’t like it, which is fine). There are plenty of folks out there drinking boxes White Zinfandel. However, if you’re into wine then go get it elsewhere. The fact that any $2 wine is palatable is fucking amazing to me.
In Europe we have Thomann and their in house brand of guitars (Harley Benton) and they have absolutely no right to be as good as they are for the price, also good looking things as well.
I’m familiar with Harley Benton! A buddy of mine got one of their teles for a little of nothing. Fit and finish of his is on par with the higher end Squires or the Indonesian G&Ls, neither of which are too bad and the Benton was a third of the price. The pickups are subjective, but I like them better than the classic vibe ones. Switch is chunkier, too.
I ain’t mad at HB.