Why the good business man must drink

I am willing to posit that as long as there has been alcohol, it has been used as a tool of business.
There is nothing quite as personally binding as a drink shared between two men; nothing, at least, that does not require years in the building.  So why, why can a shared drink bring men into kinship and contract?
The answer lies in trust.
Through the ages of technology and social orders, the specifics of business have changed but there remains one constant: that all dealings of business are founded on trust – if one party does not trust the other, the business will surely fail. Business is the binding of contracts – the promise of effort, dedication, delivery and mutual benefit.
But how, in this world of unction, deceit and cowardice does one distinguish whom to trust? The successful business man will credit his cunning and his experience, but mostly, his careful judgment – his ability to read a prospective associate.
All men share a basic form in common and intrinsic to that form are the tenets of human behavior – every man is subject to the same motives.  It is a clever man that can conceal his motives from one day to the next – deceiving any and all who try to read him, but it is only a brilliant and evil genius that can conceal his true nature under the effects of alcohol.
Professions, promises and ostensible actions may be upheld even under intense intoxication but the latent tells of personality, honesty and disposition readily emerge under the illumination of inebriation.
This is why the business man is enamored with the drink; that two men may drink together –the deeper, the more honestly– each represents that he has nothing to hide, that he trusts and can be trusted.
Alcohol as a business tool is so universal that the business man who does not drink is a man saddled with a burden of proof in his every action; the statement he must overcome is: “I’m not to be trusted”.