Lowering the drinking age to 18 again

[oreagan]

Is anyone really against it? We all know that kids drink anyway, and while I don't really think making it legal for college kids to drink it will reduce net drinking, I can't see it exploding either.

Granted, it's our (the young folk's) own fault that we don't use our votes enough to force the issue, but it still seems silly to me.

 

[Red Dawn]

Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

 

[Jmman]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

For once I agree with Red.....

 

[tnitsuj]

No

 

[alchemize]

The only people that want this are people aged 18-20

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: alchemize
The only people that want this are people aged 18-20

And idiots. Don't forget the idiots.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj

Originally posted by: alchemize
The only people that want this are people aged 18-20

And idiots. Don't forget the idiots.

Sorry, forgot those...but they'll support just about anything.

Plus kids aged 14-17 would think it was great too

 

[oreagan]

Okay, fair enough, no young'uns in the clubs is fair reason. Still seems like silly to me to have a law very few people abide by or care about anyway.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

I agree with the general premise of that but why is 21 ok instead of 18? Do these kids not gain the right to vote at 18? They get to drive a car at 16(in most stateds) - who gets to say that alcohol can't be consumed by those old enough to be legally responsible for themselves? They can get married, they most certainly can have a job, they can enter into a legally binding contract...but not consume alcohol?

Does society get to set this? What criteria is there for the age of 21? Why not 25? 30? Why 21? ....because society says so I guess...

CkG

 

[Czar]

something odd that I read in the paper a while ago, Denmark "rises" the drinking age to 16

 

[PingSpike]

Yes it should be. If I'm old enough to be drafted and shot to death in some desert, I think I'm old enough to drink a damn beer.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
Yes it should be. If I'm old enough to be drafted and shot to death in some desert, I think I'm old enough to drink a damn beer.

Not only that but evidently at 18 you are mature enough to vote in elections which determine who runs the country and enter in to contracts but not old enough to drink a beer.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

I agree with the general premise of that but why is 21 ok instead of 18? Do these kids not gain the right to vote at 18? They get to drive a car at 16(in most stateds) - who gets to say that alcohol can't be consumed by those old enough to be legally responsible for themselves? They can get married, they most certainly can have a job, they can enter into a legally binding contract...but not consume alcohol?

Does society get to set this? What criteria is there for the age of 21? Why not 25? 30? Why 21? ....because society says so I guess...

CkG

You forgot die for their country, and star in Pr0n! It is an arbitrary number...perhaps we should re-align them all to 21

My only argument would be that it is in the interests of the community to subvert their "right to party". I'd certainly have argued a different tune 15 years ago... Not that I was ever even once stopped from drinking illegally, just couldn't do it in a bar.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: alchemize

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

I agree with the general premise of that but why is 21 ok instead of 18? Do these kids not gain the right to vote at 18? They get to drive a car at 16(in most stateds) - who gets to say that alcohol can't be consumed by those old enough to be legally responsible for themselves? They can get married, they most certainly can have a job, they can enter into a legally binding contract...but not consume alcohol?

Does society get to set this? What criteria is there for the age of 21? Why not 25? 30? Why 21? ....because society says so I guess...

CkG

You forgot die for their country, and star in Pr0n! It is an arbitrary number...perhaps we should re-align them all to 21

My only argument would be that it is in the interests of the community to subvert their "right to party". I'd certainly have argued a different tune 15 years ago... Not that I was ever even once stopped from drinking illegally, just couldn't do it in a bar.

Maybe we(society) should. It would solve the "unequal" problems the system currently has - but then again - why 21? Do you want your kids with you for 21 years? I know I dont Hell, my kids will be out of the house and gone while I'm still young - why should I let society tell me to be responsible for them longer?

Lots of questions - very few real answers....

CkG

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: alchemize

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

I agree with the general premise of that but why is 21 ok instead of 18? Do these kids not gain the right to vote at 18? They get to drive a car at 16(in most stateds) - who gets to say that alcohol can't be consumed by those old enough to be legally responsible for themselves? They can get married, they most certainly can have a job, they can enter into a legally binding contract...but not consume alcohol?

Does society get to set this? What criteria is there for the age of 21? Why not 25? 30? Why 21? ....because society says so I guess...

CkG

You forgot die for their country, and star in Pr0n! It is an arbitrary number...perhaps we should re-align them all to 21

My only argument would be that it is in the interests of the community to subvert their "right to party". I'd certainly have argued a different tune 15 years ago... Not that I was ever even once stopped from drinking illegally, just couldn't do it in a bar.

Maybe we(society) should. It would solve the "unequal" problems the system currently has - but then again - why 21? Do you want your kids with you for 21 years? I know I dont Hell, my kids will be out of the house and gone while I'm still young - why should I let society tell me to be responsible for them longer?

Lots of questions - very few real answers....

CkG

<shrug> I guess this is one of the few times where doing the "equitable" thing would probably result in more harm than good. Maybe moonbeam has a solution that would work

P.S. I'm planning on joining the rich boys club so I can send my kids off to school at 18.

 

[GTiBri]

Heck, I know 30 year olds that are too immature to drink. I don't think it would do anyone any good to lower the drinking age to 18 though. I know that I was pretty dumb at that age. At 21 I was slightly less dumb, and at 31 I'm marginally less dumb. Hopefully by 41 I'll be almost all the way over being dumb. One can only hope...

And that's not saying that I didn't drink before I was 21 either. But at least it wasn't easy to drink at that age.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: alchemize

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: alchemize

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Fsck no, it's bad enough to have to deal with idiots in their early 20's in Nightclubs and bars, we don't need any teenage snotgobblers in those places.

I agree with the general premise of that but why is 21 ok instead of 18? Do these kids not gain the right to vote at 18? They get to drive a car at 16(in most stateds) - who gets to say that alcohol can't be consumed by those old enough to be legally responsible for themselves? They can get married, they most certainly can have a job, they can enter into a legally binding contract...but not consume alcohol?

Does society get to set this? What criteria is there for the age of 21? Why not 25? 30? Why 21? ....because society says so I guess...

CkG

You forgot die for their country, and star in Pr0n! It is an arbitrary number...perhaps we should re-align them all to 21

My only argument would be that it is in the interests of the community to subvert their "right to party". I'd certainly have argued a different tune 15 years ago... Not that I was ever even once stopped from drinking illegally, just couldn't do it in a bar.

Maybe we(society) should. It would solve the "unequal" problems the system currently has - but then again - why 21? Do you want your kids with you for 21 years? I know I dont Hell, my kids will be out of the house and gone while I'm still young - why should I let society tell me to be responsible for them longer?

Lots of questions - very few real answers....

CkG

<shrug> I guess this is one of the few times where doing the "equitable" thing would probably result in more harm than good. Maybe moonbeam has a solution that would work

P.S. I'm planning on joining the rich boys club so I can send my kids off to school at 18.

Yeah - I'm sure moonbeam has some "third way" on this Believe me - I don't think that kids should be able to consume alcohol without parental supervision but this is one such case where we aren't talking about a "child" - they are legally an adult - wether or not they are mature or not is another issue but they are legally an adult.

CkG

 

[Sahakiel]

At this point in time, I see one of two options :

Allow drinking at 18.

Raise other minimum age requirements to 21.


Personally, I'd raise standards to 21.

 

[illustri]

to think now at 21 im drinking less since i have to pay for alcohol

 

[Vic]

I would agree to lowering the drinking age to 19 to those with high school diplomas. The reason the drinking age was raised to 21 from 18 in the first place is because most kids turn 18 while in their senior year in high school (with my BD in August, I was one of those rare people who graduated while still 17).

 

[maluckey]

Sure, if we raise the legal driving age to 21, and the age to get into any nightclub to 25. This would allow the idiots to get it out of their system so that by the time they are old enough to drive and go to clubs, they should be less of a threat to the rest of us.

 

[MadRat]

The same goody two-shoes that want the drinking age to be 21 turn around and want the same kids to be voters at 18. Either they are ready to be adults or they are not. Giving some rights and not others is just plain stupid. Personally we should make voting and drinking ages be 25, not 18 or 21. Hell, its already illegal for them to drive drunk whether they be 16 or 21, so its very dumb to pretend someone such and such age is ready for this but not some other thing. And the penalty for violating the drinking laws ought to be weighed upon how they were broken, not simply punishing the average kid -as the example - just because he didn't personally know the deputy or the county clerk. When I was teaching it never failed that when parties got busted the best kids were given harsh punishments while the real brats got off with nary a slap of the wrist...

 

[RigorousT]

If everything was aligned to a certain age, it would get boring...
Not much to look forward to as you age through those different rights of passage.

16 - drive
18 - vote
21 - drink

Stages of responsibility and maturity.

But mainly, just want to make them suffer through the same thing we did....
Fake IDs torn up and turned away from a club

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: RigorousT
If everything was aligned to a certain age, it would get boring...
Not much to look forward to as you age through those different rights of passage.

16 - drive
18 - vote
21 - drink

Stages of responsibility and maturity.

But mainly, just want to make them suffer through the same thing we did....
Fake IDs torn up and turned away from a club

In that case, drinking should be switched with voting, IMO.

I don't think kids should be allowed to drink while in high school, but at the same time, 21 seems too old (considering many kids will be in their third year of college by then). Since not everyone graduates from high school at the same time (or at all), that can't be the drinking requirement, but perhaps sometime around 19 or 20 would be better, as this would cover older high school kids (for the most part), and young college students.

Either way, it always surprises me that one can die for his/her country and not be allowed to drink... perhaps exceptions could be made for military personal?

 

[Michael]

Where I grew up (Quebec) the drinking age was and still is 18.

I've never understood the 21 requirement in the USA other than it does save some lives.

I think that the current drinking age encourages bing and extreme drinking and 18 makes much more sense than 21.

Michael