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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 coun
by 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 agoLaws are not created democratically.
- epi0Bauqu 19y agoThat is semantics. By democratically I meant the same sense of the word democratic in the original comment.
- eat_my_shorts 19y agoStates did that because of federal pressure, denying them federal dollars if they didn't. It was unilateral.
- epi0Bauqu 19y agoThe 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 agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169772