Age Limits
- Thread starter chuckman1
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Just curious, how old are you? You may not be more mature the day before your 18th birthday than after, but you should be more mature than when you were 16. It doesn't happen in an instant but you couldn't enforce a law where once the person is mature enough they can drink (how would you even measure that?). Some are mature at 16, others are immature at 30 however they're not part of the majority. The government just tries to generalize it.chuckman1 said:
However the drinking age is completely retarded. At 18 you are legally an adult and responsible for your own actions, which should include drinking.
Those kids die in their own puke, not because they're afraid to call an ambulance, but because they're too stupid to drink responsibly. If you're drinking so much alcohol that you're puking your guts out and you're passing out, then your the exact reason why we have those laws in the first place. Another reason those laws are in place is because car accidents cause the most fatalities in our age group, and a good chunk of those killed in car accidents ended up having alcohol in their system. The ease at which minors get booze is a different thing entirely and is usually due to kids stealing it from their parents or having an older sibling or friend supply them.
In short, we have those laws in place because a good portion of us don't know how to drink responsibly.
In short, we have those laws in place because a good portion of us don't know how to drink responsibly.
Alcohol's cultural place in the country in question has a lot to do with where they choose to place the "legal age," be it 16, 18, 19, 21, or whatever. In the US, at the time prohibition was repealed, the threshold age into adulthood was considered 21, and so most states set 21 as their minimum drinking age. After the ratification of the 26th amendment set the voting age at 18, most states lowered the drinking age to 18 or 19.
Then, after Mothers Against Drunk Driving became politically relevent in the early 1980s, a federal law was passed that raised the drinking age back to 21.
I do think age limits on alcohol are appropriate, but I also believe the generally accepted legal age should be whatever is considered the threshold age - in the case of the U.S., 18. I further believe that parents should be allowed to give alcohol to their kids if they so choose and should be held accountable if their kids do something stupid as a result.
Then, after Mothers Against Drunk Driving became politically relevent in the early 1980s, a federal law was passed that raised the drinking age back to 21.
I do think age limits on alcohol are appropriate, but I also believe the generally accepted legal age should be whatever is considered the threshold age - in the case of the U.S., 18. I further believe that parents should be allowed to give alcohol to their kids if they so choose and should be held accountable if their kids do something stupid as a result.
I for one don't even see why people WANT to drink. I mean, I sure as hell don't need to be boozed up to have fun, not to mention that there is absolutely ZERO benefit from it. It's expensive, it's unhealthy, and it makes you really, really stupid until you wake up the next morning puking your guts out while your head throbs like a thousand war drums. Sure, that doesn't happen to every one, and sure, drinking doesn't always mean getting drunk, but there's no threshold you pass where before that drinking is good for you and after it becomes bad. It's just different stages of bad for you, ALL THE TIME. Add that to the fact that alcohol tastes like shit no matter what form it's in and you have yourself an all around terrible social convention. Oh, right, "it's an acquired taste." Yea, well I'm sure if I ate shit for weeks on end it eventually wouldn't taste so awful either!!
*phew* But of course, that's just my opinion on drinking. And smoking too, I guess.
Anyway, age limits are there because kids are stupid. Kids meaning anyone from 1-25 pretty much, but 25 is pretty long to wait so we kind of settle for 18 and 21. I know I wouldn't trust my 14 year old self to vote, or drive, or really anything that would grant him any kind of responsibility beyond owning a dog.
*phew* But of course, that's just my opinion on drinking. And smoking too, I guess.
Anyway, age limits are there because kids are stupid. Kids meaning anyone from 1-25 pretty much, but 25 is pretty long to wait so we kind of settle for 18 and 21. I know I wouldn't trust my 14 year old self to vote, or drive, or really anything that would grant him any kind of responsibility beyond owning a dog.
The laws are probably there because some idiot died from doing it a while ago.
Theres the medical reason that you're body can't handle the alcohol and chances of messing up your liver before you've even lived a quarter of your life span.
The whole "14 year olds can be just as mature as adults!" reasoning is stupid, the older you are the more you'd have learned from first hand experience and therefore you'd be making more intelligent decisions. Sure some teens MIGHT be mature enough to drink but more often than not the mature ones are those WHO PUT OFF DRINKING TILL THEY'RE THE LEGAL AGE.
Theres the medical reason that you're body can't handle the alcohol and chances of messing up your liver before you've even lived a quarter of your life span.
The whole "14 year olds can be just as mature as adults!" reasoning is stupid, the older you are the more you'd have learned from first hand experience and therefore you'd be making more intelligent decisions. Sure some teens MIGHT be mature enough to drink but more often than not the mature ones are those WHO PUT OFF DRINKING TILL THEY'RE THE LEGAL AGE.
In my country the legal age to drink is 18, the legal age to drive is 16 and the age of consent is also 16.
It's a very subjective subject when deciding what age is appropriate for certain things, and while it IS indeed true that there are many young people who can handle these things better than older people, that does not really change the fact that there are many young people who do NOT.
At the end of the day they're there to protect people under a certain age from certain things.
For example, while it's true that a 15 year old can probably handle their drink quite well, having a 15 year old in a bar, drunk (but not TOO drunk) in a bar alone or behind the wheel of a car would not be a good thing. Not only because of the fact that they are drunk but because due to their age the AVERAGE 15 year old might make bad decisions (like choosing to drive drunk without being fully aware of the full consequences).
Now again you could say that adults would make the same mistakes, and it's true, they do. But someone who lacks age and therefore experience is MORE likely to make these mistakes. THAT is why the age barriers are in place.
To summarize what I mean, legal drinking age doesn't protect young people from getting drunk, it protects them from making stupid mistakes while drunk.
Legal age of consent doesn't protect young people from having sex, it protects them from being taken advantage of or from (again) making stupid mistakes (like getting pregnant while still in school without a job).
While some kids can surely be mature enough to act as an adult when it comes to these things, most just aren't. That's why they're there.
But to answer your question the reason why they choose such specific ages is because...well they HAVE to choose an age. They can't just say "around 21" or "about 16" they have to put SOME kind of limit.
It's the reason why speed limits have an exact number, you have to be specific otherwise deciding things in courts would get iffy. Rather than just saying "She was under the legal age to drink, guilty" they'd have to look into her as far as previous decision making and personality to determine if she was indeed mature enough to legally handle drinking.
It adds alot of unnecessary complication to the process, that's why specific numbers are used.
And as for why they differ from place to place, it depends on the people who created the laws, their collective viewpoint on the maturity of children for the area.
It's a very subjective subject when deciding what age is appropriate for certain things, and while it IS indeed true that there are many young people who can handle these things better than older people, that does not really change the fact that there are many young people who do NOT.
At the end of the day they're there to protect people under a certain age from certain things.
For example, while it's true that a 15 year old can probably handle their drink quite well, having a 15 year old in a bar, drunk (but not TOO drunk) in a bar alone or behind the wheel of a car would not be a good thing. Not only because of the fact that they are drunk but because due to their age the AVERAGE 15 year old might make bad decisions (like choosing to drive drunk without being fully aware of the full consequences).
Now again you could say that adults would make the same mistakes, and it's true, they do. But someone who lacks age and therefore experience is MORE likely to make these mistakes. THAT is why the age barriers are in place.
To summarize what I mean, legal drinking age doesn't protect young people from getting drunk, it protects them from making stupid mistakes while drunk.
Legal age of consent doesn't protect young people from having sex, it protects them from being taken advantage of or from (again) making stupid mistakes (like getting pregnant while still in school without a job).
While some kids can surely be mature enough to act as an adult when it comes to these things, most just aren't. That's why they're there.
But to answer your question the reason why they choose such specific ages is because...well they HAVE to choose an age. They can't just say "around 21" or "about 16" they have to put SOME kind of limit.
It's the reason why speed limits have an exact number, you have to be specific otherwise deciding things in courts would get iffy. Rather than just saying "She was under the legal age to drink, guilty" they'd have to look into her as far as previous decision making and personality to determine if she was indeed mature enough to legally handle drinking.
It adds alot of unnecessary complication to the process, that's why specific numbers are used.
And as for why they differ from place to place, it depends on the people who created the laws, their collective viewpoint on the maturity of children for the area.