30% of Americans do not drink alcohol, 10% drink 50% + of all alcohol consumed

{{{image taken from Discover magazine}}}

Last week some interesting statistics were released about the drinking of alcoholic beverages in the USA.

About 30% of Americans do not drink alcoholic drinks at all.  However, 10% of Americans drink more than 50% of all the alcoholic drinks that are purchased.  This means there are some Americans who drink over 10 cans of beer a day or at least 2 bottles of wine each day.

So, basically, this means that the 10% of Americans who have a severe problem with alcohol are funding the alcohol industry.  If the alcohol industry lost these 10%, many companies would go bankrupt. 

Here is an interesting article about this:

http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/10/05/the-alcohol-industry-needs-alcoholism-to-thrive/

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a demon - a devil, an evil spirit, something like Satan. By calling alcohol a demon drink, this article is saying alcoholic beverages can be evil.

to thrive - to be successful, to prosper

off the backs of addicts - the alcoholism industry makes most of its money from people who are addicted to alcoholic drinks

the take-away - the results, the conclusions

a segment - a part of a TV show

consumption - buying and using something

paying the tab - paying the bill (the title implies that there are consequences to alcohol consumption in the USA)

belatedly - after a long time

to make the rounds - to become known to more and more people

to be dependent on - to really need someone or something

disproportionate - not in an appropriate proportion; bigger numbers than one might expect

to be induced - to be caused

to curb their consumption - to limit their consumption

grave - serious

outstripping - outpacing, being more aggressive than something else, doing better than somoen or something else

a mainstay - a regular feature or aspect

Prohibition - a period of time in America when it was illegal to buy alcoholic beverages

fiscally - economically

to put a dent into - to make an impact on, to cause a real change to...so the author is saying that if there were higher taxes on alcoholic drinks, more people would stop drinking as much (a dent - if someone hits your car with his car, you will have a dent in your car)

pivoting off - coming from

advocated - called for, encouraged

ameliorate - to make something better. If we want to eliminate poverty, we try to ameliorate the problem.

to partake of - to use something

enhancer - to make something better or bigger