Friday, May 22, 2009

Last Call

I recently returned to Canada to visit family and friends. While home I invariably went out to the bars and noticed something immediately: last call. Last call is something I have not had to deal with in Japan. I believe the intent of last call is to help monitor the behavior of Canadians. My guess is the assumption is this "if bars cannot serve alcohol after 2:00, people will drink less and go home earlier thereby reducing the harmful externalities of drinking". Now in reality I think the story goes more like this: People see they have a limited time to drink so they ply themselves with alcohol early to guarantee themselves a healthy glow by the end of the evening. The fact that they are drinking quickly means they almost certainly over consume because they do not give the alcohol time to work its magic before drinking even more. Then at 2:00 a whole slew of inebriated people are set loose at the same time where they can interact; causing damage to nearby property, inflicting pain on themselves and others, drive under the influence (surrounded by others doing the same), have (I am assuming) unprotected sex and eat a bunch of highly suspect street meat to the detriment of their GI tracts.
Whereas in Japan, if you want to go to a club until 6 or 7 (or 8 or 9), it is wise to be quite parsimonious with the alcohol to make sure you aren't the guy sleeping in the corner of the club. Not to mention you have no need to drink quickly so you almost always know when you have had enough. People filter out of the club evenly throughout the night so the streets are never overrun by the drunkards.
I ask you, which system is better?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Canada (Ontario specifically) has poised itself on being the "leader" in how to control alcohol consumption among its citizens. They also make a lot of money doing it (http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0527713820070605). England and Scotland have recently consulted our government to get new ideas of how to tell their residents as to how their lives should be lived. Recently returning from a vacation in America, the contrast between "Pursuing Happiness" and "Good Government" became abundantly clear when I picked up my $4.50 cigarettes and $10 case of beer at 7-Eleven around 1AM. Sure, I may have been too hung over to do much the next day (on vacation) but the consequence is for me to learn as an individual isn't it? If the reward is great enough, then we will moderate ourselves. But I guess in a country that expropriates 49% of the income earned by its most productive citizens needs to impose limitations like that to get people's asses out of bed and head to work the next day. And that is why coffee is so cheap here.

\ said...

well I think there is a certain amount of legitimacy on the governments behalf: Seat belt laws exist in Canada because the government pays to put dumpty back together again. DUI laws exist in Canada to protect other people from the drunkard; as well as the douche bag himself.
But this is where the logic is flawed.
If I were premier of Ontario I would lower the drinking again to 17, abolish last call and, perhaps, decriminalize narcotics. I would rebuild Ontario as the summer equivalent of the Floridian spring break holiday local.
We cannot fix the auto industry but we can create a strong tourism industry to replace it.

crazycatlady said...

cant believe you contextualized "parsimonious." I'm taking that as a personal shout out to me. :o)

\ said...

In fact it was.

Anonymous said...

yes germany has the same thing no last orders however some bars normanally close around 2am depends on the owners
hope this help and some bars also allow smoking