4 ms·

> will be the game’s 21st birthday, allowing Bond to finally taste one of his revered cocktails Legal drinking age is 18 in the UK, I'm amazed it's as high as

> will be the game’s 21st birthday, allowing Bond to finally taste one of his revered cocktails Legal drinking age is 18 in the UK, I'm amazed it's as high as 21 in the US.

bluedino 8y ago
It was 18 for a while during the 70’s. But kids were getting drunk and crashing and dying like crazy, so Ronald Reagan raised the drinking age back to 22 in the 1980’s with the threat of cutting highway funding to states that did not comply.
- scarface74 8y ago
  18 was considered too young to have alcohol but it’s still old enough to join the military, legally sign contracts, etc.
  - jgalt212 8y ago
    but not old enough to rent a car at market rates (25 in U.S.) Hertz and Avis were well ahead of the game. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164...
    - scarface74 8y ago
      And insurance companies had enough sense to charge an arm and a leg to a single 24 year old with a Mustang. My insurance cost more than my car note back then.
    - emidln 8y ago
      When I was on my first business trip at 18, I couldn't check into a hotel in Michigan by myself. I had to call me contact at (then) DaimlerChrysler to meet me for check in. I had a credit card that could buy a brand new car, but I couldn't get the key to a $75 hotel room due to age. I later found out that, at the time, there was no law preventing me from acquiring the room, but the hotel policy was to not allow unaccompanied individuals under 21.
  - bluedino 8y ago
    That's the reasoning that was used to lower the drinking age after the draft/Vietnam War
    - rory096 8y ago
      Also the reasoning used to lower the voting age at the same time, with the 26th Amendment.
wowDude 8y ago
Drunk driving movements throughout the 1970's and 1980's are responsible for this regulation. Groups like MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving fought hard to change the way things were. Organizations involving people with relatives that passed away as a result of a drunk driving accident, which was frighteningly common back then. During high school, and prior to attending Driver's Ed classes, we had an assembly organized by various local chapters of anti-drunk driving groups, where a guy in his late 20's spoke about being amputated below the waist, because when he drove into a large tree, the engine block rebounded through the dashboard, and onto his pelvis, coming home from the bar one night. People talk about how prior to automotive safety standards developed in the 1990's (air bags, anti-lock brakes) cars were absolute death traps, and I believe it. That movement achieved some of its goals with those laws, and receded during the 1990's when broader programs encompassing drugs and social diseases were more normalized. I think it makes sense, because in the United States, people find some amount of identity in the cars they own, which seems to be less intense throughout Europe, where driving absolutely everywhere isn't as ingrained into daily life and culture.
DanBC 8y ago
Legal drinking age is five in the UK. It's 18 to buy alcohol.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  Yup, and most savvy parents slowly acclimatise their children to alcohol by allowing them wine or beer on occasion with a meal when they are in their teens. Done right, by the time the child hits 18 they don't go crazy with booze, and treat it with respect.
  - GW150914 8y ago
    Given rates of alcoholism and alcohol related disease and injury in the UK, I’d say that’s not working.
    - mediocrejoker 8y ago
      Wouldn't the more relevant statistic be the relative rates compared to the US?
      - GW150914 8y ago
        Approximately 9.6 per 100,000 alcohol related deaths in the US per year, and approximately 14.3 per 100,000 per year in the UK circa 2014. This fits with WHO data from 2003-2005 showing that Americans on average consumed between 7.5-9.9 liters of pure alcohol while on average people in the UK consumed more than 12.5. It also fits with much higher rates of cirrhosis of the liver per capita in the UK, as well as hospital admissions related to alcohol (which are on the rise in the UK).
  - jacobush 8y ago
    I was always told that the evidence was against this theory.
    - DanBC 8y ago

> will be the game’s 21st birthday, allowing Bond to finally taste one of his revered cocktails Legal drinking age is 18 in the UK, I'm amazed it's as high as 21 in the US.

bluedino 8y ago

It was 18 for a while during the 70’s. But kids were getting drunk and crashing and dying like crazy, so Ronald Reagan raised the drinking age back to 22 in the 1980’s with the threat of cutting highway funding to states that did not comply.

scarface74 8y ago
18 was considered too young to have alcohol but it’s still old enough to join the military, legally sign contracts, etc.
- jgalt212 8y ago
  but not old enough to rent a car at market rates (25 in U.S.) Hertz and Avis were well ahead of the game. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164...
  - scarface74 8y ago
    And insurance companies had enough sense to charge an arm and a leg to a single 24 year old with a Mustang. My insurance cost more than my car note back then.
  - emidln 8y ago
    When I was on my first business trip at 18, I couldn't check into a hotel in Michigan by myself. I had to call me contact at (then) DaimlerChrysler to meet me for check in. I had a credit card that could buy a brand new car, but I couldn't get the key to a $75 hotel room due to age. I later found out that, at the time, there was no law preventing me from acquiring the room, but the hotel policy was to not allow unaccompanied individuals under 21.
- bluedino 8y ago
  That's the reasoning that was used to lower the drinking age after the draft/Vietnam War
  - rory096 8y ago
    Also the reasoning used to lower the voting age at the same time, with the 26th Amendment.

wowDude 8y ago

Drunk driving movements throughout the 1970's and 1980's are responsible for this regulation. Groups like MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving fought hard to change the way things were. Organizations involving people with relatives that passed away as a result of a drunk driving accident, which was frighteningly common back then. During high school, and prior to attending Driver's Ed classes, we had an assembly organized by various local chapters of anti-drunk driving groups, where a guy in his late 20's spoke about being amputated below the waist, because when he drove into a large tree, the engine block rebounded through the dashboard, and onto his pelvis, coming home from the bar one night. People talk about how prior to automotive safety standards developed in the 1990's (air bags, anti-lock brakes) cars were absolute death traps, and I believe it. That movement achieved some of its goals with those laws, and receded during the 1990's when broader programs encompassing drugs and social diseases were more normalized. I think it makes sense, because in the United States, people find some amount of identity in the cars they own, which seems to be less intense throughout Europe, where driving absolutely everywhere isn't as ingrained into daily life and culture.

DanBC 8y ago

Legal drinking age is five in the UK. It's 18 to buy alcohol.

Jaruzel 8y ago
Yup, and most savvy parents slowly acclimatise their children to alcohol by allowing them wine or beer on occasion with a meal when they are in their teens. Done right, by the time the child hits 18 they don't go crazy with booze, and treat it with respect.
- GW150914 8y ago
  Given rates of alcoholism and alcohol related disease and injury in the UK, I’d say that’s not working.
  - mediocrejoker 8y ago
    Wouldn't the more relevant statistic be the relative rates compared to the US?
    - GW150914 8y ago
      Approximately 9.6 per 100,000 alcohol related deaths in the US per year, and approximately 14.3 per 100,000 per year in the UK circa 2014. This fits with WHO data from 2003-2005 showing that Americans on average consumed between 7.5-9.9 liters of pure alcohol while on average people in the UK consumed more than 12.5. It also fits with much higher rates of cirrhosis of the liver per capita in the UK, as well as hospital admissions related to alcohol (which are on the rise in the UK).
- jacobush 8y ago
  I was always told that the evidence was against this theory.
  - DanBC 8y ago