[quote]rainjack wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Alcohol has done so many positive things for society perhaps we should not have a drinking age.
I think it shouldn’t be any of the government’s business.
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What?? I need them to tell me what I should have for breakfast also, as that is a HARD decision… <>
[quote]rainjack wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Alcohol has done so many positive things for society perhaps we should not have a drinking age.
I think it shouldn’t be any of the government’s business.
[/quote]
some would say society was formed in part due to beer.
but whatever.
[quote]Mick28 wrote:
rainjack wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Alcohol has done so many positive things for society perhaps we should not have a drinking age.
I think it shouldn’t be any of the government’s business.
Do you feel the same about abortion laws?[/quote]
Wht does abortion have to do with the legal drinking age?
[quote]nephorm wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
Old enough to fight for the country is old enough to have a beer in my book.
Old enough to be tried as an adult, as well.
I have a real problem with someone having the responsibilities of adulthood without the rights.[/quote]
I agree completely. I had my first legal beer overseas, before turning 21. By that time I’d voted in elections, paid taxes for years, and been in the line of fire for Uncle Sam a few times. There are all kinds of folks coming back home from deployments in war zones, whose parents and families cannot take them out to dinner and buy them a drink. This is RIDICULOUS.
In my parents’ day the legal drinking age in their states were 18 and 19. The rights of adults seem to have been in this case usurped by… statistics?
[quote]Mick28 wrote:
rainjack wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Do you feel the same about abortion laws?
Wht does abortion have to do with the legal drinking age?
Not much, just wondering the extent of your anti-government involvement stance.[/quote]
I don’t think the government should be taking my tax dollars to help fund abortions. I think non-profits should be stripped of their 501(c)(3) status if they offer in anyway to subsidize the cost of abortions.
I think R. v. Wade should be overturned.
I think that the issue of abortion rights should be taken care of at the state level - not the federal.
[quote]theAnj wrote:
In my parents’ day the legal drinking age in their states were 18 and 19. The rights of adults seem to have been in this case usurped by… statistics? [/quote]
Even worse, those rights have been usurped by a federal government that has abused its authority to tax, in order to dangle federal funds in front of states which are now beholden to federal assistance.
[quote]Mick28 wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Many years ago, the son of one of my colleague’s was coming home from a dinner to celebrate him getting a perfect score on the ACT. A drunken kid ran a stop sign and killed him. The drunken kid was of course untouched.
I think anyone who kills another person while drunk driving should be hung within 24 hours, with no exceptions or exemptions. That’d cure that little problem.
Alcohol is easy to get because many teens know someone who is barely legal who’ll buy for them. How many 19 year olds are friends with 25 year olds? Much more likely for a younger person to know the barely legal person.
Anyone buying for an underager should get at least one year in a prison camp, at hard labor.
It has to do with judgement doesn’t it? Granted there are many full fledged adults with poor judgement. But, as a rule the typical 18 year old kid does not have the judgement of someone who is 10 or 20 years older. That’s why there are laws that state you cannot drive, vote or drink until a certain age. If anything, with people living longer I think the drinking age should be raised.
That should make me popular on a site that is rife with kids…Ha ha…Hey look at it this way…you’ll have more room in your little tummys for all of those delicious protein shakes.
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You’d be surprised how many full grown adults are dumber than dog shit…I mean in my little world, I am more weary of the adult behaviour than their teen aged kids…There the ones who seem to have their heads screwed on strait.
[quote]Mick28 wrote:
It has to do with judgement doesn’t it? Granted there are many full fledged adults with poor judgement. But, as a rule the typical 18 year old kid does not have the judgement of someone who is 10 or 20 years older. That’s why there are laws that state you cannot drive, vote or drink until a certain age. If anything, with people living longer I think the drinking age should be raised.
[/quote]
We have neither the capability nor the necessary type of regime to implement the exhaustive testing that would be required to determine any individual’s fitness to make each kind of decision. Further, I wonder why an 18 year old would be competent to make the most important choices of all - about politics and family - but not competent enough to choose what substances to ingest. To choose well - for any of these decisions - requires the ability to hold in mind known facts and infer the logical consequences of actions undertaken in view of those facts.
To continue with the “driving it underground” argument, I wonder if the raised drinking age does not further extend psychological adolescence. To the extent that there is authority impinging upon one’s ability to make one’s own decisions - decisions which other adults are legally allowed to make - the state seems to emphasize that the person in question is not yet of the age of majority, implying a false safety net to his or her transgressions. I also think it breeds contempt for law in general.
Heres my two cents:
Underage drinking is an accepted lawbreaking. Society is full aware of it. They put in comedy movies (college and high school films). School administrators know about it. High schools put on presentations about it. So it should just be discussed openly.
Here are all the points brought up:
If you can die for your country, you should be able to have a beer - weak arguement but agree
College students drink anyways, avoid problems by lowering it - if society doesnt “embrace” the fact that people over 18 drink then it wouldnt be as large of a deal. We see is in movies and literature. Parents even joke with there kids about it. If it wasnt assumed to be the norm then it wouldnt be as large of a problem and peer pressure to drink wouldnt be as big.
Younger people will be drinking - Yes younger people will prob drink, but only with adult supervision, so that will be neglegent parents fault. I mean think about it, where do 14 go all the time. They cant drive without being driven. They get dropped off by there parents at the mall and movies and have to be home by ten or sleep over a friends house. I mean sure some kids will sneak beer in the woods, but they do that now. younger drinkers wouldnt be able to get away with it, unless neglectatful parenting allows it.
Driving…this is a big issue. Im mean it always is. My only defense for this is grown adults do it too. This doesnt make it right to drunk drive, but it happens and you cant stop it. So many highschool kids drive drunk anyways today as it is. I dont think the problem will increase. Many young people are soo afraid of the consequences they wont do it. Not only from legal and physical harm, put socially damaging (peers get very angry) not to mention parents whoopin there ass. Driving age needs to stay 16, cause you cant go to school and learn to drive…too much time is consumed. Need to focus on school.
I think an answer is the European approach. Let kids try alcohol when there young with parent supervision. Let them get wasted when there 13 and puke there brains out at home, compared to at a party with strangers or drive drunk or dont know how to handle liquor and get the train riden on them. American youth has this perception about alcohol that the purpose of it is to get drunk ("DUDE! I JuST NEED TO GET FUCKING WASTED!) Thats why such shitty beers and alcohol brands are best sellers. If youth realize that alcohol is just meant to lighten the mood in social occasions and enhance a good time instead of the goal of the night being to get ur stomach pumped then there would be less problems. Yes, being drunk would still happen, but it would be slightly drunk instead of near alcohol poisioning. The only major problem would be the driving but it increase the consequence and education is the only way to help
Sounds like fun, 25 more days to go! lol…
ok lets see
vote,kill,charged as an adult,smoke,sex,live alone,take out loans,have credit cards… the list goes on.
When the fuck does adulthood start? Once we decide on that, then the full rights, and responsibilities of adulthood should be granted.
I lost my interest in drinking when it became legal for me to drink. From 21, until 40 I only drank once every few months to over a year at a time, and never lost sobriety during this time. (But I had to get plastered when I turned 40.)