U.S. Has The World’s Cheapest Beer. God Bless America! – Tech Tuesday

Yes, I know beer isn't something related directly to tech, unless you want to talk about how it's brewed. But in my defense, geeks like me love a good beer when we're winding down from a long day at the data center, or that all night hacking session tweaking a database search to make it find all the relevant data.

Which is why when I saw that the United States has the cheapest beer on average in the world, I couldn't help but praise this great country that bore me and nestled me in her bosom of liquid courage. But who are the people that brought us this news? The Economist magazine editors of course. They used data that was compiled from research that was done by UBS Bank, that looked at median wages and the average retail cost for a pint of beer in 150 countries. Taking those numbers, they then figured out how long the average person would have to work to buy a beer from a retail store. Turns out, it's just 5 minutes. So in the time it took me to write down to here where you are reading, I just earned enough for 3 beers. Well my work is done for the day.

But who is at the bottom of the list, with the most expensive beer? The call center capital of the world, India, clocks in at 55 minutes for a pint of beer. Right behind them are the Philippines, Columbia and Nigeria. Now you may be thinking what about Germany? They come in at two places behind us, just behind, the Czech Republic, with 8 minutes and 7 minutes respectively. And Egypt, birthplace of beer, seems to not be listed anywhere that I could see. So I guess, they have moved on. Sweet, more for me!

A lot of our fermented good fortune is thanks to the high wages we get here in the U.S. as well as all the microbreweries that help make the golden delicious liquid we all love to drink. I would especially like to thank Jim Koch over at Samuel Adams for making some of my most favorites. But I also can't forget local brewers F.X. Matt, based in Utica, N.Y. It was on a tour of their fine establishment that I found a truly awesome brew that I find I can't get enough of. To those two and all the many others out there too numerous to mention, thank you for keeping America awesome!

$>/usr/bin/share/drink --beer | more