Drinking alcohol has become so sophisticated that everyone who has reached the age of majority may indulge with social acceptance and often encouragement.
In recent centuries, with the advent of civilization and the building of cities, another small sub-culture has developed, one we call the “skid row bum.” Man has protected his alcohol consumption from ridicule by pointing his finger at the skid row bum and labeling him “the alcoholic.” The bum has never argued the point. Recently, further conscience soothing has been accomplished by appropriating large sums of money to help programs designed for the bum who has now been more respectably labeled the “indigent alcoholic.”