Drinking too much has well-known personal costs: headaches, nausea, and regrettable 4 am text messages.
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Hangovers cost the world’s largest economy alone an estimated $US249 billion (NZ$364b) a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The CDC says that the costs of excessive drinking include decreased workplace productivity, crime, and the cost of treating health problems caused by the drinking.
Adding in absenteeism and other factors, the total productivity toll from excess drinking approached $US90 billion.
The CDC has previously estimated that one in 10 deaths of working-age Americans is caused by too much drinking.
The total cost of excessive drinking on the USA economy in 2010 (£249billion) was a “significant” increase from $223.5billion – or $1.90 per drink – four years earlier, the CDC said in a statement.
More than $100 billion of these incurred expenses were paid by the government, according to the experts’ calculations.
Indeed, the financial burden resulting from this behavior has grown by approximately 2.7% every year, between 2006 and 2010, surpassing the rate of inflation.
And binge drinking was responsible for more than three-quarters – 77 per cent – of the price. That comes out to $2.05 per drink.
“The increase in the costs…is concerning, particularly given the severe economic recession that occurred during these years”, said Robert Brewer, head of CDC’s Alcohol Program and one of the study’s authors. Across the states, major disparities were identified, alcohol costs being highest in California ($35 billion) and lowest in North Dakota ($488 million).
Researchers believe real costs are even higher than their findings indicate, as data on alcohol is often under-reported or unavailable.
It did not, therefore, consider issues that may have been aggravated by alcohol.
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“Intangible costs like pain and suffering were not included”, the paper also noted.
