I live in Norway. A beer costs around 85-90nok (around $9.50USD or 9.02€). It would be really easy to spend $50. That's 5 beers, and I'm not entirely certain that the student houses are really that cheap here. [1]
Folks counter this by pre-drinking at home and then going home to continue drinking. It really wouldn't be that difficult in the US either, and some folks would certainly leave you behind if you can't keep up financially.
Fun fact: Austria is cheap in comparison, at about 2,50€ to 3,50€ per beer, and it seems like a comparative deal. [2]
It wouldn’t be difficult if you set out to do so but as a broke student you devise strategies to not spend that much money…For example would often also meet at someone’s house and drink beers bought at the supermarket. It all depends on if there’s a culture of spending a lot of money and where I went to school at least, there was definitely a culture of not spending a lot of money (at least not as college students).
It’s a difference in attitude and thus a difference in magnitude. Alcohol tax in Norway is about $100 a litre while in the UK it is about $25 a litre - so $2 per US pint vs $0.50 per pint.
Even the latter reduces hard core binge drinking and the former really seems to help with the rampant alcoholism in winter at high latitudes. Paternalistic, but that is the price of living in a society (with free healthcare systems and A&E that get overtaxed by drunks…)
Folks counter this by pre-drinking at home and then going home to continue drinking. It really wouldn't be that difficult in the US either, and some folks would certainly leave you behind if you can't keep up financially.
Fun fact: Austria is cheap in comparison, at about 2,50€ to 3,50€ per beer, and it seems like a comparative deal. [2]
[1]https://norwaytoday.info/travel/is-beer-in-norway-really-tha.... [2]https://www.flatio.com/blog/typical-prices-of-goods-in-austr....