I mean if our 18 year old boys and girls here in america can go half way around the world to Iraq to fight and possibly die to keep some dipshit from takin over a little ass country that no one cares about anyway… then dont you think that that some one that is 18 should be allowed to celebrate that victory with a nice drink of beer or liquor… well I think they should be able to drink.
In the military, they do. It’s not that it’s legal, but you really have to screw up to get busted for it.
So, join up if ya wanna booze.
OK, first of all, you’re comparing apples and oranges. You may as well ask why 18-year-olds can’t be President.
Now, prior in a Dark Time we refer to as the mid-1980s, states were able to set their own drinking ages. (Sometime, remind me to tell you about “near beer.”) However, the Federal government, in an effort to decrease drunk driving fatalities, told the states, “We can’t make you all raise your drinking age to 21, but if you don’t, you won’t get your portion of Federal highway repair funds.” (The same trick they just pulled to get the states to lower the BAC for DUI to 0.08.) So, the states all raised their drinking age to 21.
So, why can they join the Army and fight but not drink? Well, because the two are unrelated. If statistics show that 18-year-olds comprise a disproportionate amount of traffic deaths, and that a disproportionate amount of those are alcohol-related, then the states have a legitimate interest in attempting to separate 18-year-olds from alcohol.
On the other hand, there is little legitimate reason to keep 18-year-olds out of the military, or from voting.
Phil, not to make this a GD, or anything, but it can be well argued that the reason for increased 18 year old traffic fatalities is lack of experience, and that a lowered driving (or learning) age would result in a dramatic decrease in 18 year olds having accidents, while resulting in a dramatic increase of younger persons having said accidents.
But this isn’t GD, so I didn’t say that, m’kay? 
–Tim
During my undergraduate days (~10 years ago) I did a report on this subject for a speech class. I found that the statistics for driving fatalities in the 18-21 age group were largely unchanged after the drinking age changed to 21.
Possible reason? 18-21 year olds were still drinking, but, in an attempt to “get their fill in” and minimize the chances of getting caught, they were binge drinking, then attempting to drive home. I know a lot of my friends were doing this.
How to get this to stay in the pit? Shit, Damn, Fuck!!!
Hey, buck up! We can buy non-alcoholic beer when we are 18! Yup, a whole >.05% alcohol level to get drunk on!
Why can’t you drink? Because we couldn’t drink when we were 18 and we like to laugh at how foolish you look standing out front of the store, trying to get someone to buy you booze. that’s right, it’s unfair, we know it, and we like it like that. 
The citizens of that “little ass country” care, you dumbass.
Well, why not just raise the military age up to twenty one? I mean, i always wondered why people fought so hard to get the voting age down, when they could have just asked to get the military age up. And that way you’d be able to wait three years before possibly getting drafted…
Another concern might be the fact that the 18 year old will buy booze for his younger friends.
If you’re 18 and get the 21 year old buddy to buy you booze it’s probably winked at. But if an 18 year old buys booze for 15 year old friends, people probably precieve it as a problem. 18 year olds (and younger, I know I did) will drink, but maybe the thinking is to make it harder for the younger kids to obtain booze.
As one of the lucky ones who got to drink at 18, (Boy, I am dateing myself) I have to throw my 2 cents worth into this discussion. When I was 18, the laws on drunk driving were strict. If convicted of DWI you lost your liscence for a year. Period. No saving throw. No Probation. No weasaling your way out of it. No being able to claim hardship bwcause you had to take your poor sick mother to her Dialysis every other day. You became a pedestrian. It seemed that later on sentanceing guidelines changed. I always beleived that MADD had the wrong approach. Instead of preventing drinking, they should have been trying to have better enforcement of the existing laws.
The way I see it, the country treats 18 year olds as adults in every other way. They can vote. Be drafted. Enter into contracts. Get married. And they are held responsible as adults by the criminal justice system. It is discrimination for them to be denied a right due to their age. I bet that as people reach a certain age that they don’t hold their liquor very well either. You know there would be a howl of outrage if we banned sales of alcohol to people over the age of 70! It might be safer for everyone, but it just isn’t right!
I was pretty sure that on a military base, soldiers could drink at age 18. Isn’t this the case?
Just drink Nyquil.
Because 18 year olds are stupid. I’m serious about this. The army is all about senseless obedience (and rightly so–you can’t win a battle wihtut it) and it is a lot easier to get 18 year olds used to the idea of mindlessly following orders than 21 year olds. (on average) Eighteen year olds are more likely to care about honor and bravery and patriotism, whereas 21 year olds think: “Holy shit, they’re shooting at me!”
I live in a province where the drinking age matches the voting age of 18. I think that if you are old enough to vote, pay taxes, or be sent off to war you deserve all the rights that are bestowed upon other adults.
I spent a dozen years working in restaurants and bars and was 18 once myself.
What I have seen is that a lot of 18 year old’s aren’t responsible enough or experienced enough to:
- Drive a motor vehicle
- Drink alcohol.
- Make sound judgements. (especially after drinking)
And since this is the pit…
Guess how many times I had to take the keys away from some uppity little fuck who thought he could drive his buddies home?
Guess how many of those snot nosed little pricks thought they were indestructible after a few beers and tried to take me on?
Why the fuck is insurance for 18-25 year old’s so high? It pissed me off to no end when I had to pay astrofuckingnominal rates for insurance when I was a responsible 18 year old driver.
Guess what drivers scare me the most as I drive my family around? There’s two answers here - it’s those young reckless dickheads who have never lost anyone in a vehicle accident and those old geezers who have no fucking right to keep driving.
I was 18 once and as I remember those bygone days I realize that we should raise the drinking age to 21. Three more years just might save a few lives. I would not have agreed to this when I was 18 but the years that have passed since then have taught me things.
AND anyone caught giving or selling liquor to minors should have their ass nailed to the fucking wall.
I have to agree with you. The story(possible UL) I had always heard was even though federal government strong-armed every state to raise the drinking age to 21, the drinking age for federal territory(and therefore Military bases) was still 18. whatever the case, you don’t get arrested for under 21 drinking on base much, although drunk driving under 21 will get your ass kicked.
Hehe, just noticed that my 666 post was in the pit, cool.
Oddly enough, I find myself agreeing with Homer. It is lack of experience that results in the lions share of accidents in under 21 year olds. Though I take issue on his theory or teaching pre-schoolers to drive.
Manda Jo makes an excellent point as well. 18 year olds are of prime age for military training. That this is because 18 years suffer diminished mental capacity at that age, I disagree.
This thread reminds me of a lyric in a song, Eve Of Destruction.
“You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin,”
This lyric was written during the Vietnam war. The draft age was 18. The drinking age was 21. The voting age was 21.
This was adressed by constitutional amendment. The voting age was lowered to 18. Most states followed suit by lowering the drinking age as well.
Whether the activists were calling for a lowering of the voting age or an increase in the draft age is up to the historians.
(to make it pit worthy)
Just a little history lesson for those who can’t be bothered to look it up.
Heh - when I grew up, there was NO drinking age. Well, at bars, it was 18 - but a six-year old could buy a bottle of liquor at grocery store if he had the money. Recent laws have changed the age where you can buy alcohol to 15 - but there’s no law against giving alcohol to minors.
OTOH, you can’t drive until you’re 18. And IMHO, I’d rather
have most teenagers drunk and off the streets than I’ll have them driving.
Anyway, at 18, most kids have tried alcohol and will know that throwing up at 9 o’clock does not make for an enjoyable evening. But perhaps it’s a cultural thing - you’re expected to hold your drink. Drunk driving is severely punished and besides, it’s considered beyond the pale. It’s just not done.
As for military training: At 18-19, your body and general constitution is probably better prepared for what military life might throw at you than at any other age.
Hmm, different cultures.
Spiney,
After reading your post I am left to wonder;
What fuckin planet are you from?
(eg)
Six year olds permittted by law to purchase alchol? Recent law making it legal to sell to 15 year olds? No law against providing alcohol to minors? Restricted driving for those undr 18?