As the politicians in our country decided to increase the drinking age from 18 to 21, does someone know how the came to 21? I mean, why not a round number like 20?
Where is the logic to send someone to war with the responsibility of combat duties and taking the life away from enemy troops, however that same responsible and dedicated soldier is not allowed to sip a cold brewsky until he/she turns 21?
“Where is the logic to send someone to war with the responsibility of combat duties and taking the life away from enemy troops, however that same responsible and dedicated soldier is not allowed to sip a cold brewsky until he/she turns 21?”
The answer in one word: hypocrisy
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It’s a left-wing liberal conspiracy. They knew Pete Coors would run for Senate someday, and wanted to keep all those 18-20 year olds from drinking Coors and then voting for Pete. Stinking liberals.
Actually, it was based on data presented to Congress regarding the number of alcohol related accidents/fatalities. It was shown that states with a higher drinking age had fewer of these types of accidents.
Then Congress “conditioned” certain appropriations for highway maintenance to the states on having the higher drinking age. All states fell in line.
As earlier threads regarding cyclist’s deaths under the wheels of drunk drivers point out, we really haven’t been able to figure out how to prevent drunk driving in this country. But the numbers show that the higher drinking age does reduce these deaths. (which is not to say that education, enforcement and public transportation options couldn’t have a more profound effect.)
Leigh
It’s either 18 or 19 in Canada depending which province. There is no real drinking age in much of Europe.
Silliness thing in the USA IMO. Send 18 yr olds off to Iraq to fight a war but tell them they can’t buy a beer. I don’t get it. I’d rather have my kids drinking a beer at home than fighting some questionable war abroad.
Thanks for your reply, it seems that you know why the age was established. However, if that is the real reason, it is a quite stupid one. Of course, if you raise the drinking age the number of accidents goes down. In fact, if you raise it to 35 then drunk driving accidents will go down even further. Oh wait, why not have a law that prohibits people after 65 from drinking at all. That’s less drunk driving accidents as well.
I know that if you get caught drinking and driving in Sweden, Germany, Spain and other western European nations, you are in very deep trouble. In Arizona it is perhaps a night in jail, a mere fine and your license away for a little time.
Driving at 16. Killing at 18. Drinking at 21. Makes all kinds of sense.
I think it makes more sense to have the opposite approach. Let people start drinking at 14 or 15. Don’t let them get a driver’s licence until 18. They then have a few years to ‘understand’ the effect of alcohol on their bodies and systems. I think that this would seriously reduce the number of teenage drunk driving accidents/convictions. I find the currrent generation is very well educated about the evils of drunk driving but their inexperience with alcohol causes poor judgement calls. 2ndly - if you are legally allowed to be drinking as a 19 year old - you are a lot more likely to call mom or dad for a ride home. If you will get in trouble for drinking - you might push the envelope a little more.
I believe this is how things effectively work in Germany isn’t it? Not sure but I think their drunk driving rate and overall accident rate are much better than North America.
I lived in Syracuse, NY earlier in my life. I had a foster sister who was excited about turning 19 (or 18 - I was 11 don’t remember all the details) and being able to go to bars. 2 weeks before her birthday they change the age to 21…
I personally find the whole drinking age concept kind of silly, in Italy where I grew up there is no such thing as a drinking age (it’s not very unusual to see 10 year old kids have some wine (esp. if watered down) during meals) and despite this there doesn’t seem nearly as many problems as here in North America with binge drinking etc.
Yeah, when I went out with my friends in the evenings at pubs most people had a drink, but usually only ONE, rarely two (90% of the time beer, sometimes flavored vodka): being drunk was very frowned upon and thought as not cool at all. While it occasionally happened (key word is OCCASIONALLY), if it happened too regularly the binge drinker was definitely shunned and considered way too uncool for not being able to control themselves.
Another thing is that nobody, and I mean, NOBODY drank wine on its own (like people here in North America often do, for some reason most people, especially women, think that it’s ‘romantic’ to share a bottle of wine), that was considered the ultimate bum thing to do (as bums in Italy usually drink wine, the cheap kind that’s about 50-75 cents a bottle) and VERY uncool.
In my opinion the ‘legal drinking age’ is just making alcohol that more glamorous and inciting people to abuse it, but hey, what can you do, the concepts of ‘it’s cool to get hammered’ or ‘you can’t have fun if you don’t drink’ seem unfortunately here to stay at least here in North America.
“Where is the logic to send someone to war with the responsibility of combat duties and taking the life away from enemy troops, however that same responsible and dedicated soldier is not allowed to sip a cold brewsky until he/she turns 21?”
Perhaps the logic is that over 20,000 people are killed annually by drunk drivers. People under 21 account for a certain percentage of this. This percentage may be higher as a proportion of drivers in this age group. It is possible more lives are saved through this measure than are lost as war casualties, although these really are 2 separate and distinct issues. It may also have to do with the level of personal responsibility from age 18 to age 21. I have seen my 2 step children change dramatically during this time frame.
The real question is why don’t they raise the minimum age for either military duty or perhaps just combat duty?
Don
Well, no, if I rememeber right, it was that a disproportionate number of kids 18-20 were involved in the accidents.
But the point others make is well taken, the problem is not with the drinking it’s with the driving. This has its roots in our car culture and lack of available alternatives. Where I live (SF bay area) most of the public transportation all but stops completely before the bars close.
I’m not sure where 21 came form, But 18 year olds can be sent to war but can’t drink statement is as old a dirt, one thing has nothing to do with the other. 18,19 & 20 year olds rarely vote so they get crapped on.
Driving at 16. Killing at 18. Drinking at 21. Makes all kinds of sense.
When I worked for DaimlerChrysler, a coworker visiting from Germany asked for a Corona at a restaurant and got carded. “How old do I have to be!?” he asked. 21. “Wait a minute!” he said - “Crazy American teenagers can drive a Mustang Cobra at 16, which can so easily kill them and everyone in front of them - but nobody can have a Corona for 5 more years!?” The 17yo waiter just shrugged. “Dude, Mustangs suck. I have a '68 'Cuda.”
-Zo
the drinking age is pointless, but it has never stopped anyone.
we need harsher drunk driving penalties; instead of tickiting underage drinkers, police should devote those efforts to drunk driving enforcement. Also, police should dedicate justas much time to nabbing drunk drivers as they leave local hot spots (the bar and club areas of towns), as they do to ticketing speeders at local speeding hotspots (school zones, construction sites)
you should lose your license forever, no chance of ever getting it back, if you get cuaght drinking and driving. period. That would wake people up a bit.
Other than that, if you are strict with your kids about alcohol in high school, they are going to get to college and get totally shit faced and particaipate in massive orgies on a regular bases.
Some interesting statistics from the NHTSA:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSF2002/2002alcfacts.pdf All states and the District of Columbia now have 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws. NHTSA estimates that these laws have reduced traffic fatalities involving drivers 18 to 20 years old by 13 percent and have saved an estimated 21,887 lives since 1975. In 2002, an estimated 917 lives were saved by minimum drinking age laws.
what are the or what is the punishment for those fould guilty of drunk driving in Europe?
“Dude, Mustangs suck. I have a '68’Cuda.”
LOL! (and a snort for good measure.)
-I luv u, I luv u, and I luv u!
I’m 42. I’m still not old enough to drnk.
21 used to be an age when Americans were able to assume many rights and responsibilities. Until the 1960s or even early 1970s, there were states with a 21 voter age, and I vaguely remember a discussion in tax class about certain trusts that used to be distributed at age 21, but are now distributed at age 18.
I think that one of the specific concerns that was cited when the Congress tied highway dollars to raising the drinking age to 21 was the problems that came from different states having different drinking ages. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and it always had a 21 drinking age. Not so with New Jersey, which was 18, and other states bordering Pennsylvania. So, 18, 19 and 20 year olds used to drive to NJ, MD, Ohio or NY to drink and then drive home. There were a number of highways along the Pennsylvania border that were known as slaughter alleys on Friday and Saturday nights because of this. We still have a similar problem here in Michigan, as 19 and 20 years olds can head to Canada where the drinking age is lower and then drive home. The problems with crossing an international border, even before 9/11, limit this, but you still hear about it from time to time.
That is an explanation of some of the reasons why there is a 21 drinking age. When I was in college, I thought that if you can vote, get married, sign a 30 year mortgage and be drafted or enlist in the military on your 18th birthday, you ought to be able to drink a beer legally at the end of the day. I thought I might disagree when I got older, but I am pushing 40 and still think so.
what are the or what is the punishment for those fould guilty of drunk driving in Europe?
jonathan
In sweden (as of 1999) you lost your license for a year or so after your first offense of drinking and driving and you lost it FOR LIFE on a second offense. jail time was also involved, but I can’t remember the details.
Europe typically has the convenience of using alternative forms of transportation and it was a blast to go to a night club and see 1000 bike cruisers outside. awesome.
Also… …Happy hours were fun as well because there was no limit to the number of drinks you could buy before it ended. with one minute remaining you could say “two cases of beer please”? and they reached down and handed you 48 beers for about 50 bucks. not bad:)
Justin D
I say, let them vote, drive, enter the armed forces and drink at the same age. I really don’t care what it is, but just be consistent. In Quebec, where I grew up, I entered the Air Force at age 17, and got my license the same year. Legal drinking age was 18, but like Europe, pretty well everyone has access to alcohol much earlier and the bars and stores are pretty lax with the rules. I’d say, at 17, I was pretty ready to handle all of the above as were my buddies, but I know many who were not. But certainly 18 years old should be fine across the board.
Oh yes, let them enter half Ironman and longer IF they are physically ready at 16. The 16 year old son of one of my training buddies rode an incredible half Ironman last summer . His sub 5 hour results from the Tupper Lake Half Ironman are here:
139 4:56:55 Brooke Boocock 1/1 M15-17 11 1 187 36:20 1:49 1 15 2:26:40 22.9 1 387 1:53:56 8:42
The kid posted the 15th fastest bike split overall in a very competitive field. Unfortunately, in Ontario where we live, he can’t compete in half Ironman, so had to go race at Tupper Lake NY. Sadly, triathlon’s loss is cycling’s gain. He’s not the greatest swimmer, so with the prospects of draft legal racing, there is not a huge upside in tris for him, but he has far more potential in cycling. This year, he’s racing bikes and to date has beaten all the local Cat 1 cyclists !
Kudos to the Tupper Lake organizers for having a 15-17 year old age group !