No. I'm arguing that the Opium Wars generally don't inform Chinese opinion on drugs.
Well on an individual level that might well be the case.
On the political level? You don't think the Opium Wars, which led to the mass addiction of Chinese to opium, the Unequal Treaties and the "Century of Humiliation" had a significant effect on political thought in China and East Asia and still influences opinion to this day?
That would be like suggesting that the American Civil War and Jim Crow doesn't affect American opinion on race. Okay, sure on an individual level very few people are looking at John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry as a direct source of influence, but to suggest that present thought isn't deeply influenced by those events....
The locals in Gulf States never need to work. They're all super wealthy.
From what I understand while there are a lot of rich people in the Gulf States and a pretty extensive social safety net, the notion that everyone there is RICH is a stereotype, yes? We'd need to look at specifics but does it dramatically outpace the social safety nets of the most progressive countries of Europe?
And what of the NON-Gulf state nations that ban alcohol? Where are they in performance? Surely amongst all the teetotaling nations of the world, they should be able to muster some kind of grand tri/quad-fecta in economy, health, and crime (and dynamism).
We're just not seeing the results that show that alcohol is really holding back some nations and its abstinence is really improving outcomes in others.
We have estimations of costs and deaths, but nothing that really explains variances in outcomes that points to alcohol consumption being the cause, which really is the key question.
