[Nick F.]

In our study of civil rights in our government class, a couple of friends of mine and I came upon what we believe is a double standard: When one turns 18 in America, he or she is legally an adult. This person can kill and die for his/her country, yet cannot drink, rent a car, etc. We agree that if one is legally considered an adult, one should have the freedom to do what an adult over 25 can do. Why are these restrictions in place?

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Name : Nick F., Gender : F, City : Jackson, State : CA Country : United States, 

[John K.]

The "legal age" of 18 is a falsehood. Yes, it is the traditional age of passage from childhood into adulthood, but that is very misleading. At 18 you can take the steps to become independent, but that does not mean you have the maturity to use that independence wisely. For instance, most of the people under 21 who complain about drinking laws do not drink responsibly. While some people might see this as a result of the drinking laws, I have noted that it has more to do with the maturity of the person involved. Most young drinkers have no self-control. Go to any college party (or high school party, for that matter) and the evidence will be right in front of you. The same is true for renting a car. Statistics show that young drivers are more likely to have serious accidents. Since car rental services do not want to have their cars destroyed or damaged, they choose to rent cars only to experienced drivers. That means they set a minimum age of 25, which is about the same age that your car insurance rates will drop.

Now, so far as military service goes ... I agree that the age for service should be increased to 21. Again, it is a matter of maturity and discipline.

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[Daria]

It does seem kind of idiotic that we can drive before we can drink. You would think that it makes more sense if the drinking age were lower than the driving age. Then, we would have the chance to get the drinking thing out of our system before even learning to drive. The ages 16, 18, 21 and 25 are all pretty arbitrary. No one matures at the same rate. Someone at 16 may already be more mature than someone at 25. But it's a little difficult to evaluate everyone individually. So someone somewhere decided that at 16, most people were mature enough to drive, but that most people are not mature enough to drink until they are 21.

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[Chaelleigh]

I agree with the posters above, for the most part, the ages are arbitrary. It is a sort of 'average' age at which someone seems to be able to 'handle' the responsibility involved. I'm curious if the driving age harkens back to the fact that when cars *first* started to show up, they were few and far between, did not go all that fast (compared to modern cars, although certainly faster than a horse)...and so just about anyone *could* drive. There weren't licencing laws in the beginning. I would also have to wonder how much of it came out the fact that a large area of the US was farming country, where children had already been driving farm equipment. I imagine it would be strange to say...sure you've been driving a trailer for 5 years, but you cannot drive a car. However, in the end...it is arbitrary. The drinking age was dropped to 18 for a while, and folks felt the saw an increase in problems. My sis was one of the kids who got stuck in the change over, since she was born in Oct and the law changed in the Summer....therefore when she turned 18, it was not legal, even though her friends who'd turned 18 just months before were legal, talk about arbitrary! A point tho, since this came up in your Civil Class. Originally voting age was also 21, until 18, 19,20 year olds started protesting that it wasn't constitutional to draft them, when they had no say in the political matters that were leading to war. Needless to say, they won and the voting age was dropped!

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[Kim]

in texas we had our drinking age at 18.. and we intended for it to stay that way.. but the feds threatened to take away alot of our government funding if we didnt up the age.. i.. am 17.. i.. do not drink (and i probably wont ever drink.. i dont plan to).. but i happen to agree that it is entirely unfair to have the military age set at 18 and then not being able to drink.. its incredibly stupid.. and unfair. at 18 i can go buy a gun.. but i cant go buy a beer.. whats with that?

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[Greebo]

consider the age limits in other countries. In the UK, at 16 you may drink cider or perry with a main meal in a pub, but nothing stronger or on its own until you reach 18. At 16 you may leave home (if your parents give permission), marry(with parental consent), consent to sex or be raped (instead of sexually assaulted), work (limited hours), leave full-time education, biut you still can't vote or legally consent to sex if you're a gay male until the age of 18.

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[Cal31370]

I suppose that to someone your age it does seem arbitrary. Perhaps it will make more sense if you understand how the present situation came to be. In the late 60's and early 70's the drinking age and the voting age were both 21. It was pointed out that young men were being drafted and sent to Vietnam when they were as young as 18, yet they could not vote about whether we should have been fighting that war in the first place. So, the voting age was lowered to 18. Not long after that, some states dropped the drinking age to 18. There was some increase in the number of traffic deaths attributed to drunk driving. It was a bit of a problem in high schools because most of the senior class was of legal drinking age. This made it extremely easy for younger high school students to obtain alcohol. In colleges, the entire student body was of legal age. It was great fun to be a college student in 1978, but it was not very conducive to studying. Sometime during the Carter administration, the federal government coerced all the states to raise the drinking age back to 21. Driving age is lower because there is some utility in having 16 year olds drive. They can get to work and school etc. Some states like South Dakota allow driving at ages younger than 16. While it's true that 16 year-olds as a group have horrible driving records, I am not convinced that raising the driving age to 18 or 21 or 25 is the answer. The reason that 25 year-olds are better drivers than 16 year-olds is that they have been driving 9 years. Also because the very worst of the young drivers are dead or in jail before they get to be 25. I don't think it is a double standard that we think it is ok for someone to operate a tank in the army before we trust them to buy a beer. the kid in the tank has a great deal of training and supervision. The kid in the liqour store is on his own.

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[Lauren21047]

I'm quite frustrated right now having just turned 18 that I'm not considered an adult. I have yet to understand why I'm old enough to, as you said, die for my country, drive a car, get married, etc. I'm not mature enough to drink yet apparently, but I can go buy cigarettes that will give me cancer later on in my life. No, I've never drank in my life, nor do I desire to. It's the principle behind it that bothers me. I can get married, but forget a house to go with that budding family. I feel that once you're an adult, you should be an adult all the way. I don't understand why they don't lower it all to 18 or raise it all to 21. I'd be happy either way they made it.

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[Carolyn]

Back in the 80s Reagan in his conservative agenda, among other things, put pressure on the states to raise the drinking age, in exchange for federal highway funding. It's true, look it up. Before then, the drinking age was 18.

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