

Why drinkers earn more than nondrinkers (2006) - ranit8
http://reason.org/news/show/127594.html

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pan69
Over the years I've worked in many advertising agencies and from what I have
seen, socializing definitely increases capital gain.

All the ad boys going out for drinks at the end of the day (every day) and
over time seeing complete morons being promoted into positions and roles they
wouldn't qualify for if they'd gone for any decent job interview.

Unfortunately, all this socializing is very un-hackerish and might be the
reason many programmers always seem to miss the boat when it comes to a decent
salary.

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ivancho
Why should the causality go this way? Perhaps rich people drink and go to bars
because they can afford it. I'm quite unimpressed with their logic

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andersh
I think it's a bigger stretch to propose that social drinking is the preserve
of the rich.

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spindritf
Intelligent people are also supposedly more likely to drink heavily

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-
fundament...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-
fundamentalist/201102/more-intelligent-people-are-more-likely-binge-drink-and-
ge) (I know, the source leaves a little to be desired)

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andreadallera
Is this serious? Correlation != causation. A PhD should know that.

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andersh
Kneejerk pseudo-knowledgeable response there.

They are not claiming causation. They are hypothesizing correlation between
drinking and sociability/social network size, and causation from that to
higher earnings.

~~~
extension
_"We hypothesize that drinking leads to higher earnings by increasing social
capital."_

The hypothesis seems to be that drinking makes people like you and that gets
you better jobs.

As opposed to being social getting you better jobs and making you drink more,
or having a better job allowing you to drink and be social, two alternate
explanations which seem a lot more likely to me.

