Yeah my guess is that this stat won't survive a booming economy. Younger generations are social drinkers and they are skipping drinks when eating out and going out less in general since they're cash strapped.

So it's meaningless in this regard, but the stat might still be useful in showing just how fucked the economy truly is.

The entire upside of alcohol use is social lubrication. Frankly, I think our society could benefit from a bit more peer pressure.

You can get the social upside with adaptogens which are increasingly showing up in canned drinks or drinking kava with friends. Alcohol doesn't have a monopoly on that.

We could, but we don't. Alcohol currently has a defacto monopoly on lubricated social spaces. Distant second is nicotine. Nothing else comes anywhere close.