Drinking age lowered to 18?

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

All 5,699 posts or just the ones in this thread? I thought I had read the ones in this thread.

EDIT: You posted twice more since I posted this.

[devonin]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

All 5,699 posts or just the ones in this thread? I thought I had read the ones in this thread.

"if only to try and fight against the ridiculous over-parenting that has been getting worse and worse in the past, call it, 120 years."

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Oh, I read that. If I hadn't I wouldn't have been able to reply with what I did. I don't understand what you'd saying, though.

[UnkownMan]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

"if only to try and fight against the ridiculous over-parenting that has been getting worse and worse in the past, call it, 120 years."

Actually he's right. Drinking shouldn't be allowed for kids at 18. It's like allowing kids to go to strip malls and casino 12. It just doesn't make sense. They say it is supposed to have less DUIs and DWIs. That's just a crock of ****. Anyone can vouch for me on that. 16 year olds probably can't even drive yet. It just doesn't make sense!

[devonin]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Objecting to my point about preferring to lower the age to 16 if just to combat the ridiculous over-parenting with basically 'I dunno...16 seems too young to handle that' isn't really an objection, so much as a highlight of exactly what I'm talking about.

There is no logical reason why you can't prepare someone to make rational decisions about an intoxicant by the time they are 16. By the time they are 16 in Canada, they can legally consent to sex with adults, and we manage to keep the teen pregnancy and abortion rates at least somewhat reasonable. I'm pretty sure that with parents giving their kids a little more respect as intelligent people, and kids stepping up a little bit, they can cope with some beer.

Anyone can vouch for me on that. 16 year olds probably can't even drive yet. It just doesn't make sense!

Seriously, go out to farm country some time. The kind of place where everyone in the family is putting in 12 hour days of hard labour as soon as they are old enough to stand up to it physically. The kids are driving full-sized heavy farm machinery by 13 or 14 and doing it a sight better than many 18 year olds in dad's civic out on the highway.

The only reason our teenagers are unable to handle this stuff is that their parents (and their parent's parents, and so on) have insisted on breeding dumb into their kids by consistantly and systematically convincing themselves and their children that teenagers are stupid morons.

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Actually he's right. Drinking shouldn't be allowed for kids at 18. It's like allowing kids to go to strip malls and casino 12. It just doesn't make sense. They say it is supposed to have less DUIs and DWIs. That's just a crock of ****. Anyone can vouch for me on that. 16 year olds probably can't even drive yet. It just doesn't make sense!

What doesn't make sense is your post. Perhaps YOU were drinking while you wrote it?

[RawrInc]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

This thread is never gonna go anywhere special.

It's all about personal beliefs.

You are either for the idea, against the idea, or a various level of a medium.

and I could drive better than most adults at 16, imo.

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Ok, I'v had an epiphany! Some 16 year olds can handle drinking when others can't, right? Some 21 year olds can handle drinking while others can't, right?

How about an Alcohol Test? Like a drivers test. The individual needs to prove their worthy of the privilge (sp?) before gaining it.

[awein999]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

wow, I never really thought about it like that devonin, I'm starting to agree with you. We as a society have made imaginary lines of restrictment to try and protect young people which is not the natural thing to do.

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

That has too many bad points.

First of all, who decides? How do they make the test? How do they make sure it's not biased?

Second of all, should ANYBODY really have that power? The power to make a test that determines who should be able to drink, or who should be able to drive? The current tests for driving are based on things that are very much related to the mechanics of handling a car and knowing the street signs - this is, understanding the restrictions that society has set up to make car driving safe. Very different from drinking - anybody can pick up a bottle and chug it. You don't need a certain skill to make sure you can do this.

It's too subjective. The only solution is a general age at which most people think the decision can be made.

[RawrInc]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

That's a horrible idea, would waste money, time, be quite unhealthy. No way that would ever happen.

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Who made drivers tests? The same questions were probably asked then, too.

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

I realized when I said that, that I was missing a bit of info about driving tests so I edited my post.

[rzr]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

That's a horrible idea, would waste money, time, be quite unhealthy. No way that would ever happen.

I literally laughed out love reading that. How on earth could a test be unhealthy?

[Chrissi]

Re: Drinking age lowered to 18?

Well, driving tests require you to drive a vehicle in (mildly) difficult situations.

So to pass a drinking test... would you have to drink a lot of alcohol and prove you won't throw up or fall asleep on the front lawn?