Poll: Drinking Age.

Amen.

 

I think anywhere from 14 to 21 has its benefits, but one thing's for damn sure: It should be less than 21. I picked 18, though, because it's a nice round amount to when most other adult privileges become legal.

 

Two unrelated things. As I said before, you can work several jobs at 18. Military is among them, but does not need to be singled out.

 

In Sweden the issues of drunk driving and the drinking age are two separate issues, which makes sense since the maximum allowed BAC is 0.2 compared with 0.8 in the US, the two issues are thus handled differently from what I can tell. The debate instead revolves around the risks of violence and alcoholism if young people start drinking too early. I think you are correct in pointing to this as being one major difference between the US and several European countries in how they view the issue. If a society expects and tolerates that people of all ages will get behind the wheel after having several drinks, then the most inexperienced (when it comes to both driving and drinking) can be expected to cause more accidents relative to other age groups.

 

If a person can be sent to die for their country, let alone vote or be sued as an adult, he/she is allowed to drink beer. Why is that so hard to understand?

 

This country got along pretty well until prohibition without minimum drinking ages. And I would suggest, from the evidence all around us, that the government is a pathetically bad parent. It is social constructs that keep us from acting like "The Lord of the Flies." Or do you believe that people only behave civilly when the police are watching them?

 

It's not a matter of choice , it's that if the authorities regard you as old enough for military service then they shouldn't regard you as too immature to sup a glass.

 

Exactly, they regard you as old enough to choose to kill and die for the country but not old enough to have a sip of beer? Something is wrong with that.

 

Hopefully Flying Dog wouldn't sue over its similarity to the "Raging Bitch" copyright

 

I think 18 for drinking and 18 for driving is the most practical solution that solves the most ills. If you have those few 18 year old seniors supplying booze to the 14-17year olds, then barely anyone is old enough to drive let alone drink and drive and there will be hardly any HS parties (unsupervised) as no one will be able to drive to get there. Oh, and if driving age is raised to 18, then car insurance costs should (in theory) go way down.

Only arguements I can see is it will make it more difficult for kids <18 to get to part-time job, or lazy parents who just don't want to chaperone or drive their children around until they are 18. But then again most part-time job income probably goes into gas, car expenses and insurance for most children <18.

 

19 for sure. I don't buy that whole military serving thing. If you are in the military you can most likely get whatever you want anyway. Justifying this to give all 18 year old beer is just bad logic. The percentage of people that are 18 in the military is not even close to the percent of those not. It should be 19 for the soul purpose of keeping alcohol out of high schools.

But then again I think that kids will always drink before the required ago so if we do make it 19, kids will get their hands on it at 16 or 17. Let's be real, who honestly waited till they were 21.

 

Agree but I think that by making it 19 you have a better chance of keeping it out of HS. NOT saything that it will be 100% effective. However once you are in college you should be legal. I am pro at home under supervision being up to the parents disscretion.

 

I was on a rugby tour in England several years ago while i was in my "prime" drinking shape. Those kids partied so hard, they could drink anyone under the table.

 

Some clarifications.

1) The age of 21 is the age of majority in some states in the US where all states have reserved to them rights not "delegated" to the Federal government. (e.g., the particular implementation of the three tier system chosen after the repeal of Prohibition, etc., etc.)

3) The age of military service without parental consent is set at 18 and currently requires that the individual voluntarily join a military service.

This is mandated at the Federal level since the US military forces are paid for out of the Federal Budget. It used to be, as a side effect of a concern for national defense during WWII and the Cold War that 18 year olds became eligible for the draft but even then not all were drafted and served.

3) The US Government does not have a law in place stipulating that the minimum legal drinking age is 21.

While, all states do have a law in place that regulates age of purchase at 21, such a law does not exist at the Federal level. (The state level laws effectively became a law by action of each state when each of the state governments (composed of your elected representatives) decided on their own that they wanted to preserve their Federal subsidies for construction of interstate highways (which happened to be 90% from the Feds and 10% from the state). This began when the Federal government (made up of your elected representatives from the various states) decided that the 90% subsidy would be there if the state had a law in place requiring age of purchase at 21, but that there would be no Federal subsidy for the state if that law was not in place. This was possible because the Fed has the power to regulate interstate commerce delegated to it by the various states.

4) The legal drinking age in each state, as opposed to the legal age of purchase, is separate and separable and some states do allow a younger drinking age than 21, but with some conditions attached. So read the regulations in each state to find out what is or is not allowed.

So bottom line. States determine drinking ages. The Feds determine age at which military service becomes the sole choice of an individual.

 

Not to mention, let's be honest here.

Joining the military does NOT necessarily equal maturity. I know this opinion is unpopular, and you all can hate me for it if you want, but I knew way too many people in high school that wanted to join the military pretty much solely because they were racist assholes that wanted to go somewhere and shoot people that didn't look like them.

The military has some absolute standup individuals in it, no doubt, but it also has a % of immature people that are playing out some weird fantasy.

 

16. Though the worst part about drinking laws in US states isn't the age, but the fact that in many cases offenders get cuffed and brought to jail. How is that reasonable?

 

I'm not suggesting that the state should take the place of parents. But when parents fail to do their job (for which we also have evidence all around us), I think it's reasonable that we have clear, enforceable laws and regulations—paired with, yes, effective social programs—that help keep the direct results of bad parenting (crime, drug addiction, violence etc.) from impacting the rest of us and dragging our entire society down. A reasonable legal drinking age is certainly a part of that conversation.

I'd also question your idea of what constitutes "getting along pretty well," but that's another matter. The early 20th century was no picnic.

 

I'm sure its been said, but if you are old enough to fight for our country you are old enough to have a beer at the end of the day.

 

When I was 19, I was not nearly responsible enough to resist the urge to drive after a few beers. I'm sure a lot of 19 year olds are, but not me.

 

No beer until you can legally rent a car! (25)

J/k... I said 18 because based on the hypocrasy of that at 18 people are considered mature enough to vote, drive, and fight in wars for your country, but not drink.

Although I really like this approach, because it eases young people into the responsibility, but it's way too sensible and nuanced for anyone to in our country to get behind...