The More You Know, The More You Drink

Recently released U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics revel that there is a strong correlation between how much education people have and how much they spend on booze - the more education, the more money is spent buying alcohol.

There is an ongoing debate regarding how to interpret this. The most popular theory is that people with more education make more money. As they make more money, they buy better-quality hooch. For example, a bourbon drinker with a high school education who makes in the $40K range would buy Jim Beam, while a college grad making in the neighborhood of $60K buys Makers Mark. Similarly, wine drinkers with more education, and hence more disposable income, drink wine that comes in bottles rather than boxes.

Personally, I subscribe to a different explanation. IMO people with more education have higher expectations. However, those expectations are frequently mercilessly shattered when they meet cruel reality. Hence the following chart.

Regardless of which theory is correct, I find the Bureau of Labor's estimates of annual alcohol expenditure shockingly low. Just about everyone I know, regardless of educational level, is above average.

Way, way above average...