At the heart of the matter

"It is not the multitude of ale-houses... that occasions a general disposition to drunkenness among the common people; but that disposition arising from other causes necessarily gives employment to a multitude of ale-houses."

It's another in our series of "things clever people said years ago that have great resonance today".

This one is from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. Smith has a reputation for being wordy, but that quote seems pretty concise to me.

Contrast Smith's line with: "We all need to work together to shape an environment that actively promotes sensible drinking, through investment in better information and communications, and by drawing on the skills and commitment of all those working together to reduce the harm alcohol can cause, including the police, local authorities, prison and probation staff, the NHS, voluntary organisations, the alcohol industry, the wider business community, the media and, of course, local communities themselves."

This is from Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy, and suggests it's today's policymakers who have mastered the art of obfuscation.

But Smith would argue people today are so miserable they would rather escape their grim lives in ale houses. Not the Department of Health though, which says this is a collective misery that's nothing to do with them, and will not be resolved through government action dealing with its root cause. But through the work of everyone else - following its instructions.

Like an idle foreman, they bark at us to build their sensible drinking edifice, no matter how wonky the construction.

And it is wonky. People don't drink excessively because the state hasn't "invested in" better communications.

Or vomit and fight in the street because the state hasn't drawn on the skills of the wider business community - for which read: "asked recession-hit companies to stump up for things that aren't any of their business".

Give people lives that offer more than drunken oblivion and they'll avoid the drunken oblivion.

If they persist, then prosecute them with the many laws that exist for the problem.

Joe Fattorini is a trade sales manager at Bibendum as well as a journalist and wine writer

• Harpers Says...