Quote:
Originally Posted by Agrippina
What I don't understand is, if you are old enough to elect your political representatives and drive a motor vehicle, why aren't you old enough to decide on other aspects of life. 18 is a good age to accept responsibility for yourself. We've always had 18 as the legal age for drinking. Hasn't turned us into a country of alcoholics there are other reasons for that which I won't go into here.
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You make an excellent point--one that I've been mulling over.
Here are my thoughts:
I know that there were studies conducted about the deaths of young people where alcohol was involved, hence the reason that the drinking age was raised to 21. (Or at least, I think
know this, it's nothing I've researched so I don't trust my knowledge on this as it could be based on little more than the MSM--a very unreliable source.)
I also know that the MSM has had story after story about binge drinking (especially on college campuses) citing the lack of experience, education and a sort of crazy "I'm free to drink!" idiotic euphoria that seems more powerful than common sense. (Though not in those words
) (But again, this is something I haven't researched either.)
On the news here, a few days ago, I heard about a father that teaches his underage children how to drink sociably, at home, during meals, events, etc. He's some sort of expert (I forget which) and cited his research that proclaims the way to combat the "binge drinking" scenario above, is to take the mystique out of drinking and make it mundane. (My words, not his.)
The next thought I had was that if we expect 18 yr. olds to be adults--as we recognize them as adults in our justice system, expect them to manage their finances as adults, hold a job like adults, to provide for themselves as adults--it's really rather odd that we don't expect them to participate in social situations as adults when you truly think about it.
So in the end, I can only conclude that you're right here. There's no logical reason that people who are considered adults shouldn't be granted the same responsibilities and avenues of entertainment that all other adults enjoy.
As to the driving issue--we give driver's licenses (on average) to 16 year olds, yet we still (societally and legally) consider them minors, so I'm not sure that particular argument applies here.
One last thought though: I think that we can't say "you're an adult at 18" in one circumstance, but not another. Once that citizen has reached his or her majority--that should be the end of any distinctions. If we're talking about at what age has an individual reached the maturity level necessary to be responsible enough to be able to consume alchohol--I'd say 30.