Don’t beer us; we’re sad

Master statistics/baseball/politics/entertainment/beverage blogger Nate Silver shows in another deep post how beer sold for home consumption is apparently no longer recession-proof as it has been in throughout the modern era. Beer sales are dropping with the rest of the economy, defying the grand old trend. Silver shows some great numbers on the topic and comes to this conclusion:

I can’t escape the feeling that there’s something rather Weberian about it all: a manifestation of Calvinist guilt over both the present failures of the economy and its prior excesses. A deliberate effort to deny oneself pleasure.

Indeed, perhaps. Or maybe everyone has just switched to the $9 jumbo jugs of discount vodka advertised in the Manney’s Shopper. We must do more with less!

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