4 ms·

Well if every (almost?) other country has a lower drinking age and the US claims to be the most democratic country, I'd think having the drinking age at 21 is a

Well if every (almost?) other country has a lower drinking age and the US claims to be the most democratic country, I'd think having the drinking age at 21 is a bit hypocritical. But as the article says, if you want to drink under 21 you can easily do it so like most things, it's up the parents to raise the child well and stop blaming society.

epi0Bauqu 19y ago
Being democratic doesn't seem related to the drinking age. We democratically have fixed the age at 21 (for most states). Also, I don't see how most other countries fixing it at a certain age is a strong argument for us to do so.
- concealed 19y ago
  Laws are not created democratically.
  - epi0Bauqu 19y ago
    That is semantics. By democratically I meant the same sense of the word democratic in the original comment.
- eat_my_shorts 19y ago
  States did that because of federal pressure, denying them federal dollars if they didn't. It was unilateral.
  - epi0Bauqu 19y ago
    The US government does that all the time with a variety of laws using threats of highway money and other things. That is just politics--it doesn't make it unilateral. Sometimes states refuse, sometimes they don't. And sometimes the Federal government backs down. Not all states have a drinking age at 21 so there is sort of a control here and it goes the other way, i.e. I bet they are still getting federal highway money.
- jrockway 19y ago
  > We democratically have fixed the age at 21 (for most states). Well... sort of. The federal government stopped giving highway money to states that didn't follow its demands to raise the drinking age. I guess they didn't do anything illegal, but bribery seems unethical to me. If we are really concerned about democracy, we shouldn't tolerate the trampling of states' rights like this. Actually, I think all this happened before I was born. I can still be mad though :)
  - epi0Bauqu 19y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772

epi0Bauqu 19y ago

Being democratic doesn't seem related to the drinking age. We democratically have fixed the age at 21 (for most states). Also, I don't see how most other countries fixing it at a certain age is a strong argument for us to do so.

concealed 19y ago
Laws are not created democratically.
- epi0Bauqu 19y ago
  That is semantics. By democratically I meant the same sense of the word democratic in the original comment.
eat_my_shorts 19y ago
States did that because of federal pressure, denying them federal dollars if they didn't. It was unilateral.
- epi0Bauqu 19y ago
  The US government does that all the time with a variety of laws using threats of highway money and other things. That is just politics--it doesn't make it unilateral. Sometimes states refuse, sometimes they don't. And sometimes the Federal government backs down. Not all states have a drinking age at 21 so there is sort of a control here and it goes the other way, i.e. I bet they are still getting federal highway money.
jrockway 19y ago
> We democratically have fixed the age at 21 (for most states). Well... sort of. The federal government stopped giving highway money to states that didn't follow its demands to raise the drinking age. I guess they didn't do anything illegal, but bribery seems unethical to me. If we are really concerned about democracy, we shouldn't tolerate the trampling of states' rights like this. Actually, I think all this happened before I was born. I can still be mad though :)
- epi0Bauqu 19y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772