Are families who enjoy wine together more recession-proof than those who don’t?
History, it is said, teaches us that when times are hard, people don’t particularly choose to drink less. Often, we drink more. Factor in our desire to celebrate the good times with the alcoholic beverage of our choice, and it’s easy to see why beer, wine, and spirits appear recession-proof: there’s always a good market for booze.
Image source: about.com
One can always measure our current global mood just by glancing at the market charts. These days, those charts display a distinct downward slant, and the floor to falling stock prices hasn’t yet revealed itself. Nearly everywhere, people and institutions are lamenting their various economic adversities just as loudly as when they were consumed, in the recent past, by irrational exuberance. Which, we can easily suppose, is one of the main fuels for our current so-called recession in the first place.
But must our collective human mood be extraordinarily high or low to, in the aggregate, cause us to reach for that bottle? Is economic depression a result of collective human depression?
While not a definitive answer, I think we experience a cyclical mindset in America, a collective emotional oscillation if you will. We largely look toward alcoholic beverages as refuge or reward rather than as a daily ritual with meals. We find bad excuses for our alcohol consumption rather than good reasons. Certainly wine in America has not enjoyed an association with food and family as is the tradition in countries where wine consumption has played a part in people’s daily lives for centuries. Here in the States, alcohol consumption is still more of an escape from our travails - whether affectedly joyous or otherwise - than an everyday toast to our well-being.
Certainly there are other voices speaking about how wine plays a part in everyday life - or how it could in America. I’m heartened that others feel our relationship with wine would be so much more mature in this nation if we had grown up drinking it at the dinner table with our parents. I cannot improve on this point, as I did not grow up in such an atypical environment for the times, but it is easy for me to suggest that as we continue to embrace it in our American culture, wine might just become the glue that will hold our families together during tough times as well as kindle our joy when times are good.
Why? Because I suspect that we can, if we choose, talk about wine with our kids. Let’s choose to pour them a little with dinner under the auspices of our care and supervision. Let’s choose to facilitate respect for wine (and other alcoholic beverages) and therefore act responsibly about it. If we do these things, we will dispel wine’s mystery: our children will no longer view alcohol as something taboo to later binge on or take solace in, and the incidence of disastrous consequences due to excess and misguided consumption habits will, over time, decrease at all age levels.
When government spending of our tax dollars is earmarked toward applying cures to society’s ills rather than preventing its problems, then we have a long way to go compared to societies that have made wine part of their everyday culture.* If we could build enough critical mass here in America to solidify this notion of family wine acceptance enough to overturn our bluenose laws, then I assert that the potential knitting together of families that follows could theoretically result in reduced government bail-outs.
Over time, that is. After all, cultures do not change overnight. People have to want to forsake apathy; they have to want to make a change. As with many things, I believe positive change starts with family habits.
Yes, I know: it’s a stretch. And I’m no trained theorist. Nevertheless, I could probably contribute more about this topic, but I feel it will be better served by two-way dialog. Therefore, here’s your chance to weigh in - on your own blog, if not here in comments to this post. So, folks:
Do you find yourself agreeing with my assertions? Or am I just an idealistic Yankee who’s totally off his nut?
There’s not much written about the subject of wine, families, and American culture, so if you’re inclined to glean more from this topic, I invite you to read an excellent post written recently by Dr. Debs titled Teaching Your Children About Wine. You might even check out Dr. Vino’s recent poll, OMG The stock market is crashing! Recession is nigh! Whither wine?
*If you are aware of any statistics that support or contradict this statement, please share!
