Miller on beer
Neil Miller writes in the HoS on 10 benefits of drinking beer:
- Beer lessens the constant anxiety of watching the Black Caps bat.
- After beer, Gareth Morgan’s constant lectures become slightly less annoying.
- Beer enables people to hold strong opinions on every issue without resorting to research.
- Without beer, no one would date in the provinces.
- Television beer ads employ all young Kiwi actors not talented enough to be on Shortland Street.
- The Government gets lots of money from beer through excise tax, GST and company tax on anyone who manages to make a profit.
- Frank Zappa said “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team or some nuclear weapons.” Without beer, New Zealand would only be half a real country.
- The late-night takeaway food industry depends on beer for patronage.
- Beer production provides the main ingredient in Marmite.
- Drinking a frosty beer annoys President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Professor Doug Sellman.
Heh, an excellent list.
Another HoS article focuses on the drop in beer consumption in NZ.
Statistics NZ figures reveal beer sales have dropped from 181 litres per adult in 1973 to 79 litres last year. This figure marks the lowest level of beer sales since World War II.
But what about the drinking crisis in NZ?
And before you claim people are just drinking more of other alcoholic products, overall alcohol production is down also.