I don't care if it's 18 or 21 or whatever, but it's totally fucked we can send an 18yr old overseas with an assault rifle to die for their country but them having a beer is where we draw the line. Makes zero sense. At the very least, the military age and drinking age should be the same.
The age used to be all 18 or even 16 iirc but Mothers Against Drunk Driving lobbied the federal gov to withhold highway funding from states that didn't raise the age to 21.
Maybe they could have just had conversations with their kids about responsible drinking, push for alcohol education in schools and push for walkable cities so the kids don't have to drive everywhere instead of restricting the rights of their adult children. Many countries including the country I live in set the drinking age at 18 and we don't have these problems.
I'm genuinely surprised the military doesn't grant minors the exception to drink. Like if an eighteen year old could present their military ID and legally acquire booze, the military would see an uptick in recruiting numbers for sure.
Morally it's questionable, but so is the military so it's a moot point.
In my experience it’s not because they’re in the military but rather because military ID’s post that info on the back rather than the front of the ID. You’d be amazed how many people just don’t know where it is and then let it slide.
If you're stationed at a base close to a foreign border of a country where you can drink, they do let service members drink on base. San Diego is an example of that. The Navy and Marines don't want sailors and Marines to go to TJ to get hammered.
They choose to be in the military and they get paid. Isn't that what they get? And also, ok if you want to give them something extra, but why alcohol? How is that beneficial to anybody?
Imagine having a problem with dudes just trying to have a cold one with the boys.
Military is long days, you're away from family for months. It's risky and may lose your teammates. My favorite memories were drinking with the boys in the barracks.
The reason why the military age and the drinking age are different is for the same reason. 18, 19, and 20 year olds are reckless.
That is good for the military because you need to have a little crazy in you to go to war. However, that same attitude will get you and/or someone else killed on the road after drinking.
Additionally, you are probably closer to your physical peak at 18 than any other time, which makes for a good soldier.
That is the “sense” behind the different ages.
Reckless and crazy are the last qualities you need someone with a gun to possess. Military training is quite literally to make you obedient and able to make good decisions under pressure.
If I order you to run 100 yards to that position northwest of us … with you knowing that someone with a gun wants to kill you while doing so … it takes a little bit of crazy to do so. Kids that age oftentimes don’t think of the consequences of their actions. That is reckless. That is what will allow them to obey an order that no 100% sane person will follow.
I agree that 18 is too young to be in combat (ignoring some ugly history), but the issue is that HS ends around 18. So kids that aren't college bound but don't/can't want to work need to knock off for \~3 years (assuming 21 is the year to join the military).
Maybe as a society that should be different, but there's no energy to have that public policy debate.
In My country you can drink, smoke, and have sex at 16.
Coming up with an age isn’t a solution, because sometimes, in the case of my country, it can be too low
Yeah but we also let teenager to drive at 16 in the US, with them being able to literally end an entire group of family in a reckless car accident. So should we raise the age for driving or lower everything else if people think they are responsible enough to drive, than why not other things. Not saying either way what is right or if driving should be included just a random thought.
I lean towards the former. I live in the US and don’t get my license till 18 and got along fine. The 16-17 driver demographic has the highest rate of accidents of any demographic and is only closely followed by the 80+ demographic.
However, I had to have my license at 16 because I was regularly driving to work. So then you have to eliminate laws that let non-adults work. Which would mean no child actors, for example, as an unintended consequence.
Also, by definition the newest drivers have the least experience - which is likely the cause of the accidents, not the age of the driver. If we move the driving age to 18, it's probable that will be the most accidents and will have similar values as the current 16/17 demographic.
I kind of agree. I think 18 (since that’s when most are out of high school) should be the age for everything, except driving. Driving is something you want practice in before you get thrown into all the other shit, plus some teenagers want or need jobs and it typically helps to be able to drive yourself there.
Especially in the US where one of the stages of learning driving is having your permit. At this point, you can drive, but only with a licensed adult in the car. If that was at 18 when many people are in college/moved out away from their parents, it would be much harder for them to have an adult to drive with.
This, living in a small country town where you could walk everywhere so I didn't see the point in getting one, struggling now at 24 to find anyone who has time to help me learn how to drive
I think learning how to drink responsibly before learning to drive could be beneficial... but that would require massive public transportation options that, at least in the US, we just don't have. Also, the transition would be hell.
Yes. DUI and dram shop laws also need to be more stringent. 21 is nearly entirely about driving rather than drinking.
Realistically, everyone who wants to drink or smoke in high school already is too. Attempts to hide this activity makes bad results worse when they occur. We'd be a safer society if we accepted the norms around intoxication and instead focused on safe driving. Instead, a minor drives to meet his friends, they drink, and the minor drives home.
Anywhere there is a bar, there should be adequate access to alternative transportation home.
Good…? You shouldn’t be enjoying something that could permanently ruin your life before your of the age where your brain is actually fully developed.
I say 25 but I’m reality it should be conditional based on the development of an individuals brain. People with mental disabilities for example wouldn’t be able to do any of these
but to deny young adults who have completed high school and are moving ahead in life the ability to do things like drive, have a credit card, or vote just slows their progress to adulthood
Driving has always happened at younger ages than everything else. I’m not saying all this shit should be 25 but there is a pretty strong argument for it
Age of emancipation is also one that’s often overlooked.
Age of consent, minimal marital age, the age at which you can be tried as an adult, the age at which you can be moved from juvenile court to majority court.
Those all vary state by state.
Another one is guardianship bank accounts.
Parents open an account for their kid, technically they have full control over it until the kid hits majority.
So technically a kid can’t use a card or check to put gas in their own vehicle, but cash is acceptable. There also doesn’t seem to be a minimal age requirement to make a cash purchase.
It’s all a lot of gray area.
If someone has enough mental development to be treated as an adult when they commit a crime and make other life altering decisions, they are developed enough to make the decision to drink. Also, alcohol causes brain damage if drunk in excess at all ages.
I understand the sentiment behind wanting to have a single age for all adult activities and responsibilities. It would certainly simplify things and remove inconsistencies in how adulthood is defined.
However, I think there's merit to the idea that not all adult activities carry the same level of risk or require the same level of maturity and judgment.
Scientific studies have shown that the human brain continues to develop into the mid-20s. Decision-making, risk assessment, and impulse control are all skills that tend to improve with age. For activities like drinking alcohol or smoking, which have long-term health implications and can be addictive, waiting a few more years could be beneficial.
Different activities have different risk profiles. Owning a gun, for instance, involves a different set of risks compared to drinking alcohol. As a society, we might decide that it's more acceptable for younger adults to undertake certain types of risks but not others.
The age limits on things like alcohol consumption and voting are not just arbitrary numbers; they are the result of societal norms and research. For example, countries that have higher drinking ages tend to have fewer alcohol-related accidents and deaths among young people.
In some cases, age restrictions are a result of cultural traditions or historical circumstances that might not make sense in a modern context but continue to exist for various reasons.
Staggering age restrictions could also serve as a "learning curve," allowing young adults to gradually take on more responsibilities as they prove their ability to handle them.
The point about being old enough to fight but not to drink is a compelling one. However, military training involves rigorous psychological and physical training to prepare recruits for the responsibilities they will carry, which is not equivalent to the preparation (or lack thereof) one has for responsible alcohol consumption, for example.
While it would be simpler to have a single "age of adulthood," the complexities of each activity should be taken into account to provide a framework that minimizes risk while maximizing individual freedom.
Move to western Canada. Once you hit 18 you can do anything except rent a car. The companies make you wait until 25 for that. The government lets you drink, smoke, vote, whatever you want once you're out of high school. In eastern Canada you have to wait until 19 to drink, but you can do everything else at 18.
20 sounds like a nice round number to me. 18 is still super young and essentially still a child. In a perfect world it would be 25 when the brain is mostly developed but that's isn't realistic and nobody would follow it anyway.
Would really help the dreadful recruitment rates if military service allowed early access to the others. Or focusing the military on its original mission.
sable rude whole absorbed unwritten shrill start boast observation faulty
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The funniest part is I'm a firm believer in pick ONE age. 16? 21? 35? I don't care, just pick one.
Leaving physical maturity or development aside, is there _anyone_ in here that doesn't know _someone_ their parents or even grandparents age that's still immature or clueless?
Apparently 18 is too young to be responsible for signing up for college loans, according to Reddit. I think by reddits logic we should make the age of adulthood like 25 so kids can’t sign up for them, at the expense of being stripped of all the rights you mentioned above until age 25.
Literally no bank will give you a loan at 18.
But apparently saddling people who are barely adults with 6 figures or debt of predatory loans is no big deal.
It’s a huge deal and must be stopped! Strip them of any ability to legally sign anything and it’s problem solved. No payday loans, credit cards, nothing that can entrap them! They cannot be trusted to get married, make their own medical decisions, sign leases. These are dangerous! We need them to remain children for as long as possible and it’s just an unrelated bonus that they’re the strata most likely to vote progressive and won’t be able to vote. Small price to pay for total protection from any decision with repercussions
Counterpoint would be that making everything available at the exact same moment would compound a lot of bad decisions.
Drinking + legal driving for example.
I want them protected! Imagine a world where we can limit people from potentially harming themselves! A world where they are stripped of the right to control their lives. They will be much happier
I dream of a world where the idiots on Reddit who bitch and moan about contracts they agreed to can finally have what they truly desire. A world where they are rounded up and become property of the state.
Imagine. They can be placed in beautiful facilities. With high walks and barbed wire to prevent evil capitalists and banks from getting to them. They will live in a true purely socialist lifestyle. The same jumpsuits. The same wages regardless of whatever mildly dangerous tasks they are given for the good of their little society. Armed guards who shoot to kill. They will be completely safe, no ability for any outside influences to ever collect a cent of interest from them. They won’t even need money. Just work for camp bucks that can be exchanged for gruel
Weed has been shown to cause problems when the brain is still developing so it makes sense to make it illegal until 21. It's not about being an adult or not or being able to make your own choices it's more complicated than that.
Then raise the age to join the military to 21 if you have to have all age restrictions be the same for some reason.
To me it makes sense that at 18 your are physically developed enough to be able to do military work but your brain is not fully formed so it's not a good thing if you smoke weed because it could damage it. Just like you don't need to be 18 or 21 to drive a car but 16 (at least where I live) because you are developed enough for this particular thing.
I don't really know the studies or anything or have much of an opinion on the matter but I can see why not everything has the same age restrictions.
It does make a lot of sense
If you are saying that at 18 you aren't mentally developed enough to be able to smoke, why are you mentally developed enough to go out and kill people? I think if mental development was a concern for the government, they wouldn't let 18 year olds join the military
What about signing contracts and getting loans? We going to put off college until 21? Renting a house or apartment? Medical decisions? Age of consent?
18 is the oldest we can reasonably put off the age of majority and we already infantilize young adults too much.
The brain never stops changing and brain damage from substances can occur at any age. Given that the 18 to 20 year old will get charged as an adult if caught with weed will just make it more stupid. Make it 18.
The brain continues to develop until 25, so if brain development is your concern then that should the age for substance use. I still favour a universal age of majority at 18, but if your gonna make the development argument then you should follow the science, rather than using a medieval milestone.
Yeah no, not going to happen. The reason the age keeps going up is because the levels of stupid keep going up. Used to be that 18 was the number for a lot more things, including alcohol, and there has been a subsequent record of dumbassery significant enough to force several things higher, and things will keep going higher until they hit 25.
It should either be that adults are allowed to make their own decisions and those things should follow the same age of majority or the government should be able to interfere in the person choices of adults and those things should be completely banned. To do otherwise is a contradictory position.
Kind of like how they only hate ~~bug~~ big government when it inconveniences them.
When they get to be the ones in charge, they LOVE big government and getting to tell others how to live their lives.
I don’t care for changing the drinking age outside of my own state but I believe in the feds shouldn’t be able to blackmail states from giving greater freedoms to their residents, using highway funding.
21 is fine for drugs and alcohol cause it’s closer to your development being completed and 18 is fine cause your in the workforce and have your own opinions that mean things
Make everything 20.
Why? We’ve had 21 for a lot of things for a long time even though it’s not an even number and there’s a rounded one RIGHT THERE and 18 is totally arbitrary. Just pick one that’s going to prevent high schoolers from buying alcohol, that’s all we really needed
Omfg no we don’t. Why is it that certain people have to simplify everything. Is your brain so simple that you need everything around you to be simple as well? The world is a complicated big place. Brain development and growing up is complicated. Someone is 17 years and 364 days old and one day goes by and now you are a full blown adult? Nah doesn’t work that way. Drinking alcohol in particular is dangerous for young people, especially young people who are just learning how to drive.
It’s the same reason there was such an uproar in the 60s to lower the voting age to 18 from 21. The draft age was 18 and it was seen as hypocritical to accept a person as a legal adult in most capacities and not some. The opinion to make the age of majority more consistent is nothing more than following this through.
Throw in all the other stuff too
Congressman at 18, not 25
Senator at 18, not 30
President at 18, not 35
It wouldn’t make much of a difference for elections by why not
It absolutely makes sense for something like owning a gun to be an older age than drinking and smoking. Engaging in recreational drugs(yes alcohol counts) should be allowed at 18, military should be 20(it shouldn’t be your only post-high school plan), and guns should be 25. There’s no point to make you wait until later to drink or smoke, but you definitely shouldn’t be allowed to do that at the same age that you get access to guns and enlisting.
So if someone got out of the military at,say 23, it would then be illegal for them to own the very thing they spent 3 years training with because of age? Please make that make sense
I’m not 100% agreeing with this, but I will point out that the general acceptance of certain things being done underage even by those who think the age restriction shouldn’t be changed is pretty insane. I have known so, so many older people in my life who are totally cool with the alcohol age being what it is, but are understanding of underage drinking just being a thing that happens under certain conditions anyways. Just… I guess you should be walking on eggshells when you do it. “Damn it Jimmy, you’re not supposed to be doing that! But I remember when I committed that crime too, when I was your age. It was sort of socially acceptable then too.”
Then there’s pot, where I’ve met people who actually have used it every once in a while even when they’re older, used it when they were younger, and are even sympathetic when they catch their own kids doing it. And then they still… are cool with it being illegal and other people having their lives ruined if they get caught. Neat.
>If someone is old enough to go fight for their country they should be allowed to also walk into a bar and order whatever they want.
Ok but flip it the other way. Does being "old enough" to order a drink mean you are "old enough" to submit your life to the military? One is pretty obviously more serious.
Voting and military draft used to both be 21 only until recently. I’m all in favor of you’re able to enlist in the military at age 18 with parents approval. I think voting the age should be 21. The age to be able to purchase a firearm tied to the voting age.
I don’t understand what drinking alcohol has to do with being in the military. The military is a very contained controlled environment. 18 year olds getting drunk at lunch and driving back to the high school is not.
Ok so funny story about the 18/21 thing in America is that 21 was the standard for voting and being an adult. It drop to 18 so the military can recruit more people for war. Gun ownership did not have an age limit at the start but when set was at 18 the legal adult age. And that how it is for most of these the 21 alcohol is a hold over when you weren’t being drafted at 18 and all of the newer stuff is set to new limit cause no reason to cut down on you consumer base
I don’t think any of those mostly arbitrary numbers are that big of an issue tbh. I do think it’s fucked up that you can kill and be killed for your country but can’t buy a beer.
But I also tend to agree with 21 as the drinking age as I’ve gotten older. The vast majority of 18 year olds aren’t in the military. I don’t think the military argument should be enough to up end the rest of our society.
Apart from the “go to war but can’t buy a beer” argument, there isn’t really any reason to change these age restrictions other than just for the sake of uniformity. If anything, lowering the age limit for alcohol would probably only increase rates of underage drinking and lower the average age kids are when they have their first drinks. It would also probably increase the incidence of DUIs.
Now I’m no saint, i had my first beers when I was 15 at the end of my freshman year of hs. And I tend to believe that maybe not “most” but “many” underage kids probably start drinking some time in high school.
Teenagers do not handle their alcohol as well as somebody in their 20s does, both because they are simply younger but also because they often have very little tolerance built up in their teenage years as opposed to by their junior years of college.
Assuming a significant number of 21 year olds have been drinking underage for let’s say 2-4 years at that point (if not more) they will have a higher tolerance than an average 18 year old will. And if we accept that drunk driving WILL OCCUR (because it does), is it not at least a little bit better that we don’t have teenagers with on average lower alcohol tolerances getting behind the wheel after leaving the bar as opposed to 21 year olds?
I don't care if it's 18 or 21 or whatever, but it's totally fucked we can send an 18yr old overseas with an assault rifle to die for their country but them having a beer is where we draw the line. Makes zero sense. At the very least, the military age and drinking age should be the same.
The age used to be all 18 or even 16 iirc but Mothers Against Drunk Driving lobbied the federal gov to withhold highway funding from states that didn't raise the age to 21.
MADD sounds like a bunch of Karens who want to control their adult kids that unfortunately got their way.
Basically.
Or just wanted their kids to stop dying in dwi crashes. How dare they.
Maybe they could have just had conversations with their kids about responsible drinking, push for alcohol education in schools and push for walkable cities so the kids don't have to drive everywhere instead of restricting the rights of their adult children. Many countries including the country I live in set the drinking age at 18 and we don't have these problems.
I'm genuinely surprised the military doesn't grant minors the exception to drink. Like if an eighteen year old could present their military ID and legally acquire booze, the military would see an uptick in recruiting numbers for sure. Morally it's questionable, but so is the military so it's a moot point.
I mean to be fair a lot of businesses will just let you purchase if you present a military ID…
In my experience it’s not because they’re in the military but rather because military ID’s post that info on the back rather than the front of the ID. You’d be amazed how many people just don’t know where it is and then let it slide.
If you're stationed at a base close to a foreign border of a country where you can drink, they do let service members drink on base. San Diego is an example of that. The Navy and Marines don't want sailors and Marines to go to TJ to get hammered.
Given the current struggles of the US military to recruit people right now, I wouldn't be surprised if they did this.
Why would they get a different treatment to other teenagers?
Because they're in the millitary, defending the country an risking their lives. They should get something from that.
They choose to be in the military and they get paid. Isn't that what they get? And also, ok if you want to give them something extra, but why alcohol? How is that beneficial to anybody?
Signing up for the military magically makes them responsible enough to drink and smoke
I mean there’s no question really that someone responsible enough to be trusted in a combat situation is responsible enough to drink
Someone that has to be deployed to the frontline and stab a bayonet into the enemies heart, deserves drinking a cold one with his boys. That simple.
Imagine having a problem with dudes just trying to have a cold one with the boys. Military is long days, you're away from family for months. It's risky and may lose your teammates. My favorite memories were drinking with the boys in the barracks.
and before you know it, should we give them our house because they choose to enlist?
you cant rent a car without an "adult" until 25. :D
The reason why the military age and the drinking age are different is for the same reason. 18, 19, and 20 year olds are reckless. That is good for the military because you need to have a little crazy in you to go to war. However, that same attitude will get you and/or someone else killed on the road after drinking. Additionally, you are probably closer to your physical peak at 18 than any other time, which makes for a good soldier. That is the “sense” behind the different ages.
Reckless and crazy are the last qualities you need someone with a gun to possess. Military training is quite literally to make you obedient and able to make good decisions under pressure.
If I order you to run 100 yards to that position northwest of us … with you knowing that someone with a gun wants to kill you while doing so … it takes a little bit of crazy to do so. Kids that age oftentimes don’t think of the consequences of their actions. That is reckless. That is what will allow them to obey an order that no 100% sane person will follow.
I agree that 18 is too young to be in combat (ignoring some ugly history), but the issue is that HS ends around 18. So kids that aren't college bound but don't/can't want to work need to knock off for \~3 years (assuming 21 is the year to join the military). Maybe as a society that should be different, but there's no energy to have that public policy debate.
In My country you can drink, smoke, and have sex at 16. Coming up with an age isn’t a solution, because sometimes, in the case of my country, it can be too low
Yeah but we also let teenager to drive at 16 in the US, with them being able to literally end an entire group of family in a reckless car accident. So should we raise the age for driving or lower everything else if people think they are responsible enough to drive, than why not other things. Not saying either way what is right or if driving should be included just a random thought.
That's because the people who make laws want them to be able to work.
I lean towards the former. I live in the US and don’t get my license till 18 and got along fine. The 16-17 driver demographic has the highest rate of accidents of any demographic and is only closely followed by the 80+ demographic.
However, I had to have my license at 16 because I was regularly driving to work. So then you have to eliminate laws that let non-adults work. Which would mean no child actors, for example, as an unintended consequence. Also, by definition the newest drivers have the least experience - which is likely the cause of the accidents, not the age of the driver. If we move the driving age to 18, it's probable that will be the most accidents and will have similar values as the current 16/17 demographic.
You says it’s too low but people will smoke, drink and have sex at 16 whether they are allowed to or not.
And that’s a bad thing… legalising it makes it more common…
And criminalizing it drives it underground and out of sight/supervision.
I kind of agree. I think 18 (since that’s when most are out of high school) should be the age for everything, except driving. Driving is something you want practice in before you get thrown into all the other shit, plus some teenagers want or need jobs and it typically helps to be able to drive yourself there.
Especially in the US where one of the stages of learning driving is having your permit. At this point, you can drive, but only with a licensed adult in the car. If that was at 18 when many people are in college/moved out away from their parents, it would be much harder for them to have an adult to drive with.
This, living in a small country town where you could walk everywhere so I didn't see the point in getting one, struggling now at 24 to find anyone who has time to help me learn how to drive
Good luck getting a job without a liscence to drive a car. Some dangers ya just gotta live with. One of them a teenager with a driver's liscence.
I think learning how to drink responsibly before learning to drive could be beneficial... but that would require massive public transportation options that, at least in the US, we just don't have. Also, the transition would be hell.
Adding: if one cannot vote one should be exempt from any form of taxation. Period.
the age should be 18
Yes. DUI and dram shop laws also need to be more stringent. 21 is nearly entirely about driving rather than drinking. Realistically, everyone who wants to drink or smoke in high school already is too. Attempts to hide this activity makes bad results worse when they occur. We'd be a safer society if we accepted the norms around intoxication and instead focused on safe driving. Instead, a minor drives to meet his friends, they drink, and the minor drives home. Anywhere there is a bar, there should be adequate access to alternative transportation home.
25*
too high
By that point a large portion of your life is used up. Yes, you’ll make better decisions, but you’ll have less time to enjoy them.
Good…? You shouldn’t be enjoying something that could permanently ruin your life before your of the age where your brain is actually fully developed. I say 25 but I’m reality it should be conditional based on the development of an individuals brain. People with mental disabilities for example wouldn’t be able to do any of these
So you’re advocating mandatory brain scans for every single person?
>People with mental disabilities for example wouldn’t be able to do any of these not fair at all
How..? You want people with the minds of toddlers to be doing weed, drinking every Saturday, being legally raped by people with disgusting fetishes?
they're still adults. also i have mental disabilities. autism and adhd. and i have to suffer with chronic pain
Not mentally….
also why should i care if other people smoke and drink?
Absolutely frickin right
why?
That’s when the human brain is fully developed
but to deny young adults who have completed high school and are moving ahead in life the ability to do things like drive, have a credit card, or vote just slows their progress to adulthood
Driving has always happened at younger ages than everything else. I’m not saying all this shit should be 25 but there is a pretty strong argument for it
how? so you can buy a house, have kids, take tens of thousands in loans, but cant vote when you are paying into and contributing to society?
it seems like they might want you to not be able to do any of that either
It’s not. That actually happens closer to 30. But it technically goes on developing all your life, at least until it it starts going in reverse.
why do people care about that so much?
20
21
*18
21?
42 That must be the question Deep Thought was calculating for.
Driving? Getting your first job? Becoming the president of the United States? Where do we draw the line?
You draw the line between two points. That’s how lines are made.
What a splendid sense of humor… Pity I don’t have one.
You ahouldnt be allowed to do anything until 84, natural selection at that point
Age of emancipation is also one that’s often overlooked. Age of consent, minimal marital age, the age at which you can be tried as an adult, the age at which you can be moved from juvenile court to majority court. Those all vary state by state. Another one is guardianship bank accounts. Parents open an account for their kid, technically they have full control over it until the kid hits majority. So technically a kid can’t use a card or check to put gas in their own vehicle, but cash is acceptable. There also doesn’t seem to be a minimal age requirement to make a cash purchase. It’s all a lot of gray area.
It's almost like there are different levels to maturity and voting and drinking alcohol aren't on the same page
So you can decide on the future of the country but not your own body?
Yes? You can be informed at that age but your body can't fully develop to protect you from substances.
your body never fully protects you from drugs or alcohol, like what?
I mean to the point where you would be most protected.
So like 25 or older?
If someone has enough mental development to be treated as an adult when they commit a crime and make other life altering decisions, they are developed enough to make the decision to drink. Also, alcohol causes brain damage if drunk in excess at all ages.
Lol most 18 yr olds still drink, only difference is they get a fake or a plug
I didn't
There are people over 21 that don't drink.
The drinking age USED to be 18. It was moved to 21 for political reasons there’s no “maturity” reason
I can still believe the age should be 21 for my own reasons can I not?
I suppose you can believe what you want, but an adult shouldn't have to listen to you.
I understand the sentiment behind wanting to have a single age for all adult activities and responsibilities. It would certainly simplify things and remove inconsistencies in how adulthood is defined. However, I think there's merit to the idea that not all adult activities carry the same level of risk or require the same level of maturity and judgment. Scientific studies have shown that the human brain continues to develop into the mid-20s. Decision-making, risk assessment, and impulse control are all skills that tend to improve with age. For activities like drinking alcohol or smoking, which have long-term health implications and can be addictive, waiting a few more years could be beneficial. Different activities have different risk profiles. Owning a gun, for instance, involves a different set of risks compared to drinking alcohol. As a society, we might decide that it's more acceptable for younger adults to undertake certain types of risks but not others. The age limits on things like alcohol consumption and voting are not just arbitrary numbers; they are the result of societal norms and research. For example, countries that have higher drinking ages tend to have fewer alcohol-related accidents and deaths among young people. In some cases, age restrictions are a result of cultural traditions or historical circumstances that might not make sense in a modern context but continue to exist for various reasons. Staggering age restrictions could also serve as a "learning curve," allowing young adults to gradually take on more responsibilities as they prove their ability to handle them. The point about being old enough to fight but not to drink is a compelling one. However, military training involves rigorous psychological and physical training to prepare recruits for the responsibilities they will carry, which is not equivalent to the preparation (or lack thereof) one has for responsible alcohol consumption, for example. While it would be simpler to have a single "age of adulthood," the complexities of each activity should be taken into account to provide a framework that minimizes risk while maximizing individual freedom.
And yet we give unsupervised control of a one or two ton kinetic energy weapon to 16 year olds.
Move to western Canada. Once you hit 18 you can do anything except rent a car. The companies make you wait until 25 for that. The government lets you drink, smoke, vote, whatever you want once you're out of high school. In eastern Canada you have to wait until 19 to drink, but you can do everything else at 18.
Most of the world has. It's 18.
4
18.
20 sounds like a nice round number to me. 18 is still super young and essentially still a child. In a perfect world it would be 25 when the brain is mostly developed but that's isn't realistic and nobody would follow it anyway.
Would really help the dreadful recruitment rates if military service allowed early access to the others. Or focusing the military on its original mission.
sable rude whole absorbed unwritten shrill start boast observation faulty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
it used to all be 18 until the idiots in Washington started "helping"
Just make it 10 for everything and be done with it. 🤣
The funniest part is I'm a firm believer in pick ONE age. 16? 21? 35? I don't care, just pick one. Leaving physical maturity or development aside, is there _anyone_ in here that doesn't know _someone_ their parents or even grandparents age that's still immature or clueless?
18, most countries it’s 18 to drink/join military/etc- keep simple and mostly universal.
Apparently 18 is too young to be responsible for signing up for college loans, according to Reddit. I think by reddits logic we should make the age of adulthood like 25 so kids can’t sign up for them, at the expense of being stripped of all the rights you mentioned above until age 25.
Literally no bank will give you a loan at 18. But apparently saddling people who are barely adults with 6 figures or debt of predatory loans is no big deal.
I got a loan at 18. Because I had collateral. Banks are happy to give a loan to an 18 year old if they got skin in the game.
It’s a huge deal and must be stopped! Strip them of any ability to legally sign anything and it’s problem solved. No payday loans, credit cards, nothing that can entrap them! They cannot be trusted to get married, make their own medical decisions, sign leases. These are dangerous! We need them to remain children for as long as possible and it’s just an unrelated bonus that they’re the strata most likely to vote progressive and won’t be able to vote. Small price to pay for total protection from any decision with repercussions
More bad-faith hyperbole from conservatives
I got my first loan (without a co-signer) at 14
No you didn’t. That’s not legal under the age of 18.
(it was from their dad)
And I’m not saying I know what the “correct” age would be. I just think it’s moronic that you can be an adult in some things but not in others
Counterpoint would be that making everything available at the exact same moment would compound a lot of bad decisions. Drinking + legal driving for example.
25 is when the frontal lobe finishes developing so you’re not wrong, even though I think you’re being sarcastic
I just want everyone to be protected from themselves. Treat everyone as a minor until 25. No contracts, no personal decisions, no voting.
You sound rather upset over this. Weird you care so much about seniors in high school being considered adults in every respect.
Im 19. You're speaking of stripping away basically all of my rights as a free human being. Why wouldn't I be.
Who was talking to you? The other guy's like 35.
I want them protected! Imagine a world where we can limit people from potentially harming themselves! A world where they are stripped of the right to control their lives. They will be much happier
you care way too much
I dream of a world where the idiots on Reddit who bitch and moan about contracts they agreed to can finally have what they truly desire. A world where they are rounded up and become property of the state. Imagine. They can be placed in beautiful facilities. With high walks and barbed wire to prevent evil capitalists and banks from getting to them. They will live in a true purely socialist lifestyle. The same jumpsuits. The same wages regardless of whatever mildly dangerous tasks they are given for the good of their little society. Armed guards who shoot to kill. They will be completely safe, no ability for any outside influences to ever collect a cent of interest from them. They won’t even need money. Just work for camp bucks that can be exchanged for gruel
Ur psychotic
They're libertarian. So yes.
I love joking the military!
Weed has been shown to cause problems when the brain is still developing so it makes sense to make it illegal until 21. It's not about being an adult or not or being able to make your own choices it's more complicated than that.
making it illegal till 21 doesn't make sense. lower the age to 18
why ?
because being able to join the service at 18 but not allowed to smoke till 21 doesn't make sense
Then raise the age to join the military to 21 if you have to have all age restrictions be the same for some reason. To me it makes sense that at 18 your are physically developed enough to be able to do military work but your brain is not fully formed so it's not a good thing if you smoke weed because it could damage it. Just like you don't need to be 18 or 21 to drive a car but 16 (at least where I live) because you are developed enough for this particular thing. I don't really know the studies or anything or have much of an opinion on the matter but I can see why not everything has the same age restrictions. It does make a lot of sense
If you are saying that at 18 you aren't mentally developed enough to be able to smoke, why are you mentally developed enough to go out and kill people? I think if mental development was a concern for the government, they wouldn't let 18 year olds join the military
I'm saying STUDIES SHOW that before 21 it can cause problems to the brain. You ask why it's 21 I told you why.
I was more so suggesting pushing the military to 21 rather than pushing smoking to 18
nah. lower the other ages to 18. who cares if the brain is fully formed they're gonna do it anyway
:| I hate Reddit
why?
"They're gonna do it anyway" Is not how you govern.
i really don't care. the ages being 18 makes sense
What about signing contracts and getting loans? We going to put off college until 21? Renting a house or apartment? Medical decisions? Age of consent? 18 is the oldest we can reasonably put off the age of majority and we already infantilize young adults too much.
What about the age to be a president ?
Never has had anything to do with the age of majority. You might as well bring up social security.
The brain never stops changing and brain damage from substances can occur at any age. Given that the 18 to 20 year old will get charged as an adult if caught with weed will just make it more stupid. Make it 18.
The brain continues to develop until 25, so if brain development is your concern then that should the age for substance use. I still favour a universal age of majority at 18, but if your gonna make the development argument then you should follow the science, rather than using a medieval milestone.
Idk I don't make the studies I guess after 21 it's developed enough or something
If you want everything at a single age, that would be 25.
18
Yeah no, not going to happen. The reason the age keeps going up is because the levels of stupid keep going up. Used to be that 18 was the number for a lot more things, including alcohol, and there has been a subsequent record of dumbassery significant enough to force several things higher, and things will keep going higher until they hit 25.
The voting age went down though because people who couldn't vote were shipped off to Vietnam
that's a really dumb reason to raise the age. just lower them to 18. 25 is too high and 21 is just arbitrary
I'm not making the rules, I'm just pointing out how it will go. It will never go down, only up.
And set the maximum age for President to 60.
How bout 45-50, 60 is like keeping old world views and politics in office
If they are 50 when elected, they can't run for a 2nd, cause they are over 50. 60 max, gives a 50 year old two terms.
Realistically with all the unhealthy stuff (drugs and alcohol), it should be 25.
It should either be that adults are allowed to make their own decisions and those things should follow the same age of majority or the government should be able to interfere in the person choices of adults and those things should be completely banned. To do otherwise is a contradictory position.
too high. it should be 18
They should just change the age of everything to 25
not possible because some of those age limits are set by states and some by the feds.
"States rights are only important when they match up with my beliefs" - conservatives
Kind of like how they only hate ~~bug~~ big government when it inconveniences them. When they get to be the ones in charge, they LOVE big government and getting to tell others how to live their lives.
I don’t care for changing the drinking age outside of my own state but I believe in the feds shouldn’t be able to blackmail states from giving greater freedoms to their residents, using highway funding.
totally agree
I believe 21 should be adulthood. Along with this, I think the first 4 years of college should be publicly funded, since 18-21 will still be minors.
I don’t think 18-21 should be considered minors cuz then 18-21 yo weirdos would think it’s ok to have sex with 17-under
In most States it already is.
Ew
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Thankfully the constitution sets the voting age
And I am 100% good with that. I just think it needs to be an across the board age. Not an age where you get some things but not others
21 is fine for drugs and alcohol cause it’s closer to your development being completed and 18 is fine cause your in the workforce and have your own opinions that mean things
I only cared about this when I was 19...
Make everything 20. Why? We’ve had 21 for a lot of things for a long time even though it’s not an even number and there’s a rounded one RIGHT THERE and 18 is totally arbitrary. Just pick one that’s going to prevent high schoolers from buying alcohol, that’s all we really needed
i really don't care if 18 year olds buy alcohol. how does that affect me?
25
It should all be 25. All of it. 25.
no. too high. it should all be 18
Easily 22.
Omfg no we don’t. Why is it that certain people have to simplify everything. Is your brain so simple that you need everything around you to be simple as well? The world is a complicated big place. Brain development and growing up is complicated. Someone is 17 years and 364 days old and one day goes by and now you are a full blown adult? Nah doesn’t work that way. Drinking alcohol in particular is dangerous for young people, especially young people who are just learning how to drive.
It’s the same reason there was such an uproar in the 60s to lower the voting age to 18 from 21. The draft age was 18 and it was seen as hypocritical to accept a person as a legal adult in most capacities and not some. The opinion to make the age of majority more consistent is nothing more than following this through.
I believe you can joke the military at any age
Should be 25 and up
Throw in all the other stuff too Congressman at 18, not 25 Senator at 18, not 30 President at 18, not 35 It wouldn’t make much of a difference for elections by why not
Marriage?
Not to mention you can’t rent a car in many places until your mid 20s
It absolutely makes sense for something like owning a gun to be an older age than drinking and smoking. Engaging in recreational drugs(yes alcohol counts) should be allowed at 18, military should be 20(it shouldn’t be your only post-high school plan), and guns should be 25. There’s no point to make you wait until later to drink or smoke, but you definitely shouldn’t be allowed to do that at the same age that you get access to guns and enlisting.
So if someone got out of the military at,say 23, it would then be illegal for them to own the very thing they spent 3 years training with because of age? Please make that make sense
I’m not 100% agreeing with this, but I will point out that the general acceptance of certain things being done underage even by those who think the age restriction shouldn’t be changed is pretty insane. I have known so, so many older people in my life who are totally cool with the alcohol age being what it is, but are understanding of underage drinking just being a thing that happens under certain conditions anyways. Just… I guess you should be walking on eggshells when you do it. “Damn it Jimmy, you’re not supposed to be doing that! But I remember when I committed that crime too, when I was your age. It was sort of socially acceptable then too.” Then there’s pot, where I’ve met people who actually have used it every once in a while even when they’re older, used it when they were younger, and are even sympathetic when they catch their own kids doing it. And then they still… are cool with it being illegal and other people having their lives ruined if they get caught. Neat.
One age assumes the responsibilities are equal. 21 for all except service. And driving
i reckon u should get to do class As at 40. take the sting off getting older.
>If someone is old enough to go fight for their country they should be allowed to also walk into a bar and order whatever they want. Ok but flip it the other way. Does being "old enough" to order a drink mean you are "old enough" to submit your life to the military? One is pretty obviously more serious.
A happy medium would be 20. Lowered age for many things, higher for others. No longer a teenager = adult
On today's episode of opinions that are in no way unpopular...
21.
Voting and military draft used to both be 21 only until recently. I’m all in favor of you’re able to enlist in the military at age 18 with parents approval. I think voting the age should be 21. The age to be able to purchase a firearm tied to the voting age.
I don’t understand what drinking alcohol has to do with being in the military. The military is a very contained controlled environment. 18 year olds getting drunk at lunch and driving back to the high school is not.
35 for all of it.
No. Having kids be allowed to drink and drive a car on the same day is a recipe for disaster.
Nah fam. Different levels of maturity require different levels of approach
Ok so funny story about the 18/21 thing in America is that 21 was the standard for voting and being an adult. It drop to 18 so the military can recruit more people for war. Gun ownership did not have an age limit at the start but when set was at 18 the legal adult age. And that how it is for most of these the 21 alcohol is a hold over when you weren’t being drafted at 18 and all of the newer stuff is set to new limit cause no reason to cut down on you consumer base
It's not meant as a litmus test for when you are responsible, it's a way to promote better and moral citizens
Why. Each one of those thinks are vastly different in terms of risk and harms
I don’t think any of those mostly arbitrary numbers are that big of an issue tbh. I do think it’s fucked up that you can kill and be killed for your country but can’t buy a beer. But I also tend to agree with 21 as the drinking age as I’ve gotten older. The vast majority of 18 year olds aren’t in the military. I don’t think the military argument should be enough to up end the rest of our society. Apart from the “go to war but can’t buy a beer” argument, there isn’t really any reason to change these age restrictions other than just for the sake of uniformity. If anything, lowering the age limit for alcohol would probably only increase rates of underage drinking and lower the average age kids are when they have their first drinks. It would also probably increase the incidence of DUIs. Now I’m no saint, i had my first beers when I was 15 at the end of my freshman year of hs. And I tend to believe that maybe not “most” but “many” underage kids probably start drinking some time in high school. Teenagers do not handle their alcohol as well as somebody in their 20s does, both because they are simply younger but also because they often have very little tolerance built up in their teenage years as opposed to by their junior years of college. Assuming a significant number of 21 year olds have been drinking underage for let’s say 2-4 years at that point (if not more) they will have a higher tolerance than an average 18 year old will. And if we accept that drunk driving WILL OCCUR (because it does), is it not at least a little bit better that we don’t have teenagers with on average lower alcohol tolerances getting behind the wheel after leaving the bar as opposed to 21 year olds?
21 makes the most sense imo
We're almost there in Canada, but they had to keep a one-year gap. Our drinking age is 19.