Not wishing to be pedantic, but…

Spectator: The myth of the 'middle class drink epidemic'
[…] The hook for all this is a study (in reality, a glorified survey) published in BMJ Open which found that successful, wealthy, middle class people over the age of 50 are more likely to exceed the government’s drinking guidelines than their peers.

No. Successful, wealthy, middle class people over the age of 50 drink, on average, exactly the same amount as their peers. That's because they're in the same peer-group.

What the article means to say is that successful, wealthy, middle class people over the age of 50 are more likely to exceed the government’s drinking guidelines than people in other groups (who, by definition, aren't their peers).

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

2 comments

  1. This always worried me in the concept of "jury of your peers": Does that mean drug lords have to be judged by a dozen heads of major criminal organisations? Where do they find these people?

    The only people it really seems to apply to are politicians.

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