Lower the Drinking Age?

Nice try. But if you have to be 21 to drink, you should have to be 21 to die for political gain (see Iraq)

Which is a great argument for lowering the drinking age.

Which is a great argument for lowering the drinking age.
It would be an even better argument if there was a draft.

There isn’t.

Do you contend that those under 21 should not be allowed to be police officers? That’s a government job (voluntary to take) that also may result in conflict and death.

I think ALL age restrictions should be abolished completely. But I’m a radicalist.

Yes. If 18 is too young to drink, it should be too young for all adult type decisions. If you are allowed to die for your country, you should be able to drink in it.

Unless it’s changed in recent years, 17-year-olds can enter the armed forces with parental permission. So should the age be lowered to 17?

If you read through this thread you’ll see that my first argument is with who sets the drinking age over what it actually is.

I don’t believe Uncle Sham should (or has authority to, even under economic duress) set the age that people can possess/consume alcohol. I believe the legal authority belongs to each individual state. Any age, 5, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 95, or even a dry state, belongs to the individual states as a decision. If a state, via it’s state legislature, or under referendum, votes to allow 17 year olds to drink/possess alcohol, I say, so be it.

In some states underagers can drink while in the custody of their parents. That’s how it is here in Wisconsin. I support this law and opposed those who were trying to change it.

I’m not following you here. Then you do or do not believe in lowering the drinking age?

What about voting, marriage, buying a house, fucking, having kids, entering into a contract, renting a car, possessing a handgun, buying a rifle, owning a car, etc., etc…

Your fears that your stepson isn’t grown up enough to make these decisions are not valid arguments against letting him make them. I have 3 kids all of who are in their mid-late 20’s now. We all have these fears when our children are entering adulthood. But raising the cut off point to when they actually become “adults” does not help out children do so. It actually hurts them.

Age is a property all people share, and it changes. Being an Amerind or a Woman is usually immutable.

Don’t want to hijack, but most kids do not have a medical settlement to pay for college with. It makes perfect sense to recruit high school students, if nothing else then as a way to pay for college.

I was actually addressing that to Mozart and others saying they could die for their country at 18 etc, but fair enough. I can say, though, that I tend not to pay much attention at all to those who refer to the government as Uncle Sham.