So a short while back, I found an interesting article about how both men and women drinkers earn more (up to 14% more!) than their non-drinking counterparts. Clearly, this was pleasant news, considering that I haven't yet committed to (or considered) a sober lifestyle. Basically, according to Peters and Stringham, I should continue drinking as long as I'm employed- excellent.
As for the benefit to men, the study showed that men who drank at bars added an additional 7% more income. I know I'm not a math wiz, but if my future husband is making $100,000 (I wish) by the time we are married, and I let him get his drink on in bars, he could be adding $7,000 a year to our vacation fund, or a future college fund for one of our spoiled children, or even my shopping fund, whereas if he isn't frequenting our local pub, I should be considering other men who do?
There's some food for thought there, definitely.
However, much to my dismay, I see this article today, highlighted by the key sentence: “The better-educated appear to be the ones who engage the most in problematic patterns of alcohol consumption.”
Now I have to decide whether my competition in the workplace is going to drive me to become a problem drinker in the future? Should I make less than other women in comparable jobs because I'm deciding to go home, pour myself a nice, cold glass of water, and shout out incorrect answers at Alex Trebek? Unfortunately for my future self, I am going to stick with the occasional drinking. I think that there's too much at stake for a woman like me to be making less money than another women, especially when the solution is simply something that I've been perfecting for the past four years. And to all the other ladies out there, competitive or not: I'm not much into betting, but my odds are on the drinks.
No comments:
Post a Comment