Generation Sensible, say the headlines each time young people are reported to be in less trouble than previous generations. Gone are the days when parents would fret over their kids’ excessive consumption of Bacardi Breezers — now, the problem is that we’re just not drinking enough.
As a 23-year-old, I drink — and have also, on occasion, made an absolute idiot of myself after one too many Stellas. I even like pubs that don’t serve craft beer — you know, the ones with pool tables and distinctly sticky floors. But for me, drinking comes second to hanging out with friends — something nice to do before a gig or cinema trip. I rarely entertain the idea of having a few at home on a week night — and I’m not alone in my self-restraint.
Figures released by the Health Survey for England last week show that in 2015 one in three 16 to 24-year-olds was teetotal, compared with one in five in 2005. Lifetime abstainers increased from 9 percent to 17 percent in the same period, while for the rest of us young ‘uns, rates of binge-drinking have declined. It’s hard to dispute the label we’ve been given — our lack of appetite for a tipple is sensible, especially given the results from a recent study that suggested there is no healthy level of alcohol consumption.
Photo: Reuters
Why are young people so boring? Not because we’re all Fitbit-wearing, hypochondriacs who are far too concerned about the possible implications of having a can to make time for a booze-up. Yes, social media and excessive Photoshopping have ramped up the expectation for perfect appearances and lifestyles, but we are not extremists.
TEETOTALERS BY NECESSITY
It is necessity that drives us to cut down on drink. For most of us, our futures hang in the balance — now more than they ever did for our elders, which means we’ve simply got a lot more to get on with.
Hedonism, once the height of youth culture, has lost its cool factor.
The best way to understand this is to look at how the financial situation for young people has shifted in the period covered by the Health Survey for England. Almost half of all young people in England go on to higher education, paying up to £9,250 (US$12,100) a year for the privilege.
In 2005 students were charged only £3,000 a year. As real-term wages have barely grown during that period, it’s no wonder those sitting on a mountain of debt by their 21st birthday are loath to get smashed with their pals all the time.
When we’re thrown into the adult world, the stakes are also much higher. Midway through the last 13 years came one hell of a financial crash, and we’re still feeling the reverberations.
The prospect of owning our own homes is diminishing. Since 2005, the average house price in the UK has risen by more than 50 percent. Up to a third of young people face living in private rented accommodation for the rest of their lives, according to the Resolution Foundation. Even a drink is more expensive — a pint today costs, on average, £1.20 more than in 2005.
It’s not only that we may never be financially comfortable. With NHS services slashed, young people’s mental health is in crisis. Since even our wellis determined by economic factors, fewer of us are willing to throw caution to the wind — although drinking has not decreased among those with poor mental health.
For more proof that overindulgence is no longer in vogue, look also to the icons of our era: the trashing-hotel-rooms-for-the-sake-of-it types they are not. You won’t see a member of the Kardashian clan or Ed Sheeran stumbling out of a club with a fag in one hand and a bottle in the other a la Liam Gallagher. Nowadays, young people are too busy trying to establish ourselves and keep afloat in society to enjoy being on the fringes of it.
You could say we’re all just very dull — but, like our lives, it’s more complicated than that.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50