american drinking age,

animalcroc

Here are two points of interest .

1) The american drinking age is 21 but yet at 18 one can do pretty much everything (and have pretty much everything done to them) imaginable. Although we know that this silly drinking law came into existence in the 80s because of the usual dirty and petty politics, media, politiicans, cops(especially) still act as if under-age drinking is the ultimate evil. Do you think it's time to repeal it? I do.

2) On TV (or anywhere else) extreme violence like arm-breaking, faces oozing with blood, gunshots to the head or eye, heads being chopped off, kids (by kids I mean 5 year olds) fighting in boxing or karate matches, etc is accepted. Just yesterday on TV I saw a real-life robber get shot by police officers with pistols and rifles at close-range and I saw his slumped over body. I found the scene nerving. Yet, if a nip*le -shot (like Janet Jackson's) appears on TV then hell is raised. I strongly disagree that violence should be accommodated while nud*ty (or s*x) should be treated as the ultimate evil. I see no rational thought behind the way things currently are. I wish it was the other way around.

mgb_phys

Just cry "won't someone think of the children" until the rational thoughts go away!

animalcroc

Wow, it seems like the words n*pple, nud*ty, and s*x are banned. Scientific thinking at its greatest lol.

Cyrus

You can thank conservatives. Praise the lord.

Sex and drinking used to be all around in the 20s. What the hell happened?

JasonRox

Sex and drinking brings pleasure. Violence for the most part does not.

I don't get it.

Astronuc

Well, I've been drinking milk since the day I was born. Of course, after 6 months, I had to change over to cows milk. Drinking water too. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I've been drinking tea since I was 2 and coffee since I was about 11-12. Still see nothing wrong with that.

Moonbear

As someone who wasn't old enough to drink yet, but old enough to be aware of what others that age were doing when the legal drinking age was changed, I actually think it's good to keep it at 21. Actually, I guess any age higher than 18 would be okay. Mostly, it's because it gives people a little time to adjust to the freedoms and responsibilities of being a legal adult before adding something to the mix that is known for inspiring bad judgement. And, in recognizing that it's never possible to eliminate underaged drinking, as well as realizing that most alcohol provided to minors is acquired through friends of theirs who are of age, when you make the legal drinking age 21, most of the underage access to alcohol is still primarily only getting to those who are over 18 and close in age to the 21 year olds. I think this is better than having alcohol use rampant among immature high school students. There's still a problem there, but not like it was when I was near that age.

Did I make any sense at all?

JasonRox

No, it doesn't make sense because you're making a decision for other adults that should be old enough to make their own decision.

If it came down to a vote and all the 18-21 years old and older folks who think it should be lowered went out and voted for a lower drinking age, they would win. They have the right to do that.

Honestly, I don't think it makes sense to make a decision for other adults in that sense.

I guess we can give our "wise" decision but that's really it.

Contrapositive

The problem is it doesn't stop under age idiots from drinking. It is incredible easy to make a fake ID or get an older friend to buy you a 24 pack. It only stops law abiding adults, like myself, from enjoying an ice cold beer after a long day's work. Luckily, I only have 10 more days until I'm 21.

Cyrus

You can drive a car and fly an airplane at age 16, vote at 18, join the army at 18; but you can drink, gamble and own a gun at 21........something does not add up here.

So I can shoot and die using a gun for uncle sam, but I cant own my own.

Either your an adult, or your not. Adult should be 18 years old, or 21 years old. Not variations inbetween.

jtbell

As I recall, the drinking age was raised to 18 mainly because of something about teenagers drinking and driving. Maybe if we raised the driving age to 21, there might be more political support for lowering the drinking age to 18. I'm not saying I support this approach, mind you, but as a practical/political reality I think it's the only way it could happen right now.

turbo

I was in that brief era when I was 18 and the drinking age was 18. It was a simple little concept that if you are old enough to vote, and if you are old enough to be drafted to be sent to French Indo-China and be shipped over to be killed to defend France's right to keep the natives under subjugation, you are old enough to have a beer. Lots of young US people died (and FAR more nationals of all ages!) to defend French colonialism. Of course, it was sold as a war to prevent the "domino effect" by which communism could spread. What a crock!!

Gilligan08

Here is some information on the history of the drinking age and the reasons why they changed it.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/13246.html

I guess it is helpfull in preventing accidents and fatalities among teens. I personally dont care one way or the other. This is mainly due to my experiences that the drinking age being 21 hardly had an effect me, personally. When I was under 21, it wasnt to difficult to get alcohol. This will never change for highschool kids. Are parents did it and our kids will do it.

Though I would be curious on how people in countries where kids are exposed to drinking more openly and responsibly at earlier ages fare. I grew up watching my father drink responsibly. I say this becuase the people I see go over board in college with drinking tended to have more sheltered home lives in highschool, where such topics werent even talked about. So, they dont know how to enjoy responsibly.

Cyrus

I disagree Gilligan. I've seen in college, "like father, like son". Lots of kids drink because their parents are alcoholics.

The drinking age does not need to be 21, parents need to be parents so their kids dont do these stupid things. I never drink more than 2 beers if im driving, and I space it so some time has past before I drive since my last drink.

staf9

Well said Cyrus, I can't agree with you more.

ganstaman

Actually, the gambling age is 18, except maybe in Nevada or just Las Vegas. Most casinos have a 21 year old limit, but I think I've heard that that's so they can give out free drinks to everyone without carding.

Still, it does seem rather stupid to me. Is an 18 year old to be considered old enough and mature enough to make decisions or not?

BobG

1) Raising the drinking age had to do with the number of alcohol related traffic accidents. They could raise it to 25 as far as I'm concerned - or at least past the age where drinking games are popular. I've never understood why getting totally smashed at a party was seen as a goal. Don't these people have lives?

Probably a better way to handle the problem would be to seriously raise the penalties for drinking and driving, but you'd run into the same problem. People caught would ask, "Is it fair to ruin a teenager's entire future because of one youthful mistake?" If the population doesn't have the resolve to answer "YES" to that question, then the only solution is to raise the drinking age for everyone and hope that reduces the problem.

Allowing 18-year-olds to join the military is done for pragmatic reasons and fairness has nothing to do with it. You'd prefer to send them off to war before they've had time to get married and have kids. If a single person dies in a war, it doesn't leave dependents behind trying to figure out how to live on a reduced income. The voting age was the only one of the three that has any fairness to it. If you could die in a war, you ought to have some say about whether we fight it in the first place.

2) I agree. People ought to be more concerned about showing extreme violence on TV or in movies than how much of a person's body is shown. In fact, I'm more bothered by having an obnoxious amount of profanity in a movie than by nudity - neither really qualifies as morally damaging to a viewer, but listening to the first gets old pretty quick.