3 ms·

>why can they drive at 16 Because it's needed in most places in order to be a functional adult and giving late teenagers the legal means to have useful persona

>why can they drive at 16 Because it's needed in most places in order to be a functional adult and giving late teenagers the legal means to have useful personal mobility is beneficial to society. States used to allow kids to drive at like 12 and 14 and it really wasn't that big a deal since most of them didn't anyway. It's not like a 12yo needs to drive to work. It's not like most parents would trust their 12yo with a car anyway. >and vote at 18? Because that's the age for the draft and if you're old enough to be drafted (very different from volunteering) then you should have some say in the politicians who are starting the war. Unrelated to these two points, being a functioning adult (or at least enough of one to drive and vote responsibly) has much more to do with having experience trying to be a functional adult and experiencing the consequences if/when you fail at it than it does with whether you're 16 or 21. Obviously the 16yos are gonna have a slightly worse time of it but a normal 16yo is basically the same as a dumb 21yo and we let dumb 21yos do everything. If it were up to me you'd get all the normal adult stuff (drink, smoke, open a bank account with only your name on it, etc.) by 16/17 and then vote at 25 because the people who run government have such an outsize impact on society in the long term that you should probably have some adulting experience before you get to have a say in that kind of thing.

ghaff 7y ago
Toss in age of consent, drinking age, etc. It's pretty much a hodgepodge that's the end result of politics, pragmatism, tradition, and (a little bit of) biology. Presumably a unified "age of adulthood" would be more logically justifiable but that's not where modern societies tend to end up.
- pgeorgi 7y ago
  > Presumably a unified "age of adulthood" would be more logically justifiable but that's not where modern societies tend to end up. It depends. Some things have different consequences than others, and it makes sense to phase them in. If you list them by age, it probably makes more sense. For example, in Germany, assumption of liability is gradual, with criminal liability starting later: - 7 years: limited liability starts (court gets to figure out if the kid could have understood the consequences of their action in each case). traffic related cases remain exempt. - 10: limited liability in traffic starts - 14: limited criminal liability starts (juvenile penal code applies) - 16: limited drinking (beer, wine, no spirits), assumption of sexual self-determination, driving certain vehicles (motorized bicycles), voting at the county level, marriage possible under certain circumstances - 18: treated like an adult: vote, drive, drink, have full legal/criminal liability, except that it can be reduced to juvenile level if a court determines that your development lags behind - 21: end of fall back to juvenile penal code The main issue in the US seems to be that every state and county has its own rules that add to the complexity, but for any single location I don't think it will be much more complex than the above.
  - watt 7y ago
    In Germany it seems you can not have a bank account and sign up for mobile service (have mobile phone contract) if you're under 18. This does not make sense, kids need to be able to manage money and have their own phone earlier.
    - pgeorgi 7y ago
      Banks have special offers for bank accounts for children (no credit, and parents sign the contract, but it's in the child's name and responsibility). I got mine when I was 6 or 7. Mobile service, good question - I have no kids of my own and back then there was no mobile, but I suppose it's the same: contract is signed by a parent, but in child's name. (we have very sensible pre-paid offers, so there's no financial risk)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

ghaff 7y ago

Toss in age of consent, drinking age, etc. It's pretty much a hodgepodge that's the end result of politics, pragmatism, tradition, and (a little bit of) biology. Presumably a unified "age of adulthood" would be more logically justifiable but that's not where modern societies tend to end up.

pgeorgi 7y ago
> Presumably a unified "age of adulthood" would be more logically justifiable but that's not where modern societies tend to end up. It depends. Some things have different consequences than others, and it makes sense to phase them in. If you list them by age, it probably makes more sense. For example, in Germany, assumption of liability is gradual, with criminal liability starting later: - 7 years: limited liability starts (court gets to figure out if the kid could have understood the consequences of their action in each case). traffic related cases remain exempt. - 10: limited liability in traffic starts - 14: limited criminal liability starts (juvenile penal code applies) - 16: limited drinking (beer, wine, no spirits), assumption of sexual self-determination, driving certain vehicles (motorized bicycles), voting at the county level, marriage possible under certain circumstances - 18: treated like an adult: vote, drive, drink, have full legal/criminal liability, except that it can be reduced to juvenile level if a court determines that your development lags behind - 21: end of fall back to juvenile penal code The main issue in the US seems to be that every state and county has its own rules that add to the complexity, but for any single location I don't think it will be much more complex than the above.
- watt 7y ago
  In Germany it seems you can not have a bank account and sign up for mobile service (have mobile phone contract) if you're under 18. This does not make sense, kids need to be able to manage money and have their own phone earlier.
  - pgeorgi 7y ago
    Banks have special offers for bank accounts for children (no credit, and parents sign the contract, but it's in the child's name and responsibility). I got mine when I was 6 or 7. Mobile service, good question - I have no kids of my own and back then there was no mobile, but I suppose it's the same: contract is signed by a parent, but in child's name. (we have very sensible pre-paid offers, so there's no financial risk)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]