Colleges Urge Lowering Drinking Age

[Badgerinmaine]

Europe has a 16 year old drinking age and they don't have the problems we have.

They also have far better public transit, a less individualistic culture and, in general, make it a lot harder to get drivers' licenses.

And on the bad side, they have taxed the living shit out of anything that moves including Gasoline. They have proportionatley less individual freedoms than we do, and smaller countries to deal with.

Do you really think that they'd have better mass transit if they had a land mass the size of the US?

If you've ever spent any time at all in Los Angeles you have a clear picture of why mass transit in the US will never resemble mass transit in Europe. The situations are completely different.

It is probably true that they'd have poorer public transit of they were the size of the US. And, it is true that I'm a backer of public transit when I can use it (hell, I grew up in Madison, where it's pretty much regarded as a civic virtue). But for whatever reason, for good or bad, they've got better access to it than we do--and my point is, alcohol laws that may make sense over there might not in most of the US because of that. The incentive structure about drinking and driving is very different here.

[MJZiggy]

I say 18/19 (right out of high-school) is perfect... I see so many kids profit off of buying other kids alcohol in college. Also another big industry that is booming is fake ID selling... Those kids roll in some SERIOUS CASH...

You're probably right, but then if the age is 18 everywhere, why wouldn't that just push the fake ID selling and profit-taking down to the high school level? You'd have 16 year olds buying fake IDs to buy liquor.

College kids have more cash and more independence.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

You can't have different laws for different age groups...that is called discrimnation. The only laws like that are juvie vs. adult.

Should we then use your logic...how do we determine an 18 year old is responsible enough to be a cop or in the service.

That depends on how you define laws, but there are all sorts of variations that don't follow 18 or 21 years of age in what is permitted based on age. Take employment: 12 year olds are allowed in many states to work at jobs 11 year olds can't, and 16 year olds are given still more freedom. I recall from my youth that 16 was the legal age for buying airplane glue (I was building a model when I was under 16 and was told I couldn't do it...) You can marry when you are under 18 in most places; say 16 is the line there. Or, take elections: you have to be 25 to run for the US House, 30 for the Senate, and 35 for the presidency. Here in Maine, you have to be 25 just to run for the state Senate. And when it comes to alcohol, there used to be a ludicrous patchwork of laws based on age. Some states said "beer and wine at 18, or 19, yes, but you have to be 21 to buy liquor", or "you can buy 3.2 beer as a 19 year old, but you have to be 21 to buy 'strong beer'".

THe laws that are applicable. Taking about federal/state election laws isn't applicable.

Employment: That is a state's right. Fine, let's go back to that...the reason we have 21 is because the feds withheld dollars.

But, again, you are talking about degrees within juvie. Not adults.

And, again..not applicable. That is like talking about tax law and criminal law.

You are scrambling..any law that tried that today would be shot down quickly.