In the article it describes the advances unveiled by the British government in creating a shatterproof pint glass for pubs to use because apparently there has been a rash of brawls in the country where broken shards of glass from said pint glasses have caused serious injuries to people and has put a strain on their healthcare system...
Now, I don't know what Britons are putting in their beer on that little island but "87,000 alcohol-related glass attacks each year" seems like a bit much. Don'tcha think? That is like almost 240 attacks every single day...WTF?! It's a tiny little island...
I get why they want to stop the attacks from causing so many injuries but who would have thought that the "attacks cost the National Health Service roughly 2.7 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) per year." 4.3 BILLION DOLLARS? seriously? Let me get this straight...87,000 attacks a year where people in Britain use broken glass in attacks and it costs there health service 4.3 billion dollars...that is almost $50,000 per attack and that is if every single attack produces injuries...
So instead of trying to get people to drink less the government's solution is to make shatterproof glass and then pass the costs along to the pub owners?
Why not just do what all large venue gatherings in the United States do, you ask, and just serve in plastic containers? According to one designer, "Glass feels good in the hand, it feels cold. Plastic is warm."
What?...don't get me wrong I would rather drink beer out of glass too but that is because I think it tastes better...the plastic feels cheap in my mouth...its about mouth-feel...
What really irked me was that the same designer also stated, "The glass could keep the beer colder for longer."
Okay...that makes no sense...if what he said before is true...that "glass...feels cold" then isnt glass a bad insulator??? I mean if "plastic is warm" and the warmth isnt coming from the beer then isnt plastic a better insulator and therefore able to keep beer colder for longer???
It was driving me nuts, but then it hit me!
This was finally starting to make sense...
The government is saddled with a 4.3 billion dollar per year bill due to the 87,000 glass attacks...
They recognize the binge drinking problem and want to fix it so they can reduce the number of attacks and the amount of costs for the health service...
They dismiss the obvious fix which would be to serve in plastic cups and claim that National pride stops them from drinking out of anything other than a traditional British pint glass...
This allows them to front the cost in the technology needed to create a shatterproof pint regardless of the additional cost per glass...
They pass the additional cost of the glasses to the pub owners (because they are the ones who have to buy them)...
The pub owners pass the additional costs of the glasses to the drinking patrons of Britian...
The patrons drink less because it costs more...
There is less binge drinking...
Which leads to less attacks...
Which brings down the cost of the attacks to the national health service...
OMG!!!...the British government is a bunch of geniuses...
