2 ms·

How about the ability to perform consequence-based thinking?

• Retric 6y ago
  The point of democracy isn’t to make the best choices, it’s to have the people in power try and appease as much of the population as possible. The fact 61 year olds vote while 16 year olds don’t shifts priorities away from a huge segment of the population. Worse, it likely biases short term thinking as many voters will be dead before the consequences of various choices show up.
  • AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    Some fair points, but... do we really want political campaigns aimed at, say, 8-year-olds? They're stupid enough as it is when they're allegedly aimed at adults.
    • Retric 6y ago
      Dropping the voting age from 18 to say 12 only increases the voter population by ~9%. So, it’s wouldn’t significantly change how campaigns are run. But the nuances of what changes might be really interesting.
• kergonath 6y ago
  This is lacking in most of the adult population, anyway, and yet is not a reason to disenfranchise them. I am not necessarily for lowering the voting age, but this argument is not great. There is nothing magical about being 18 years old, and you’re not suddenly smarter than a year ago. Same for being 21, or whichever threshold you want.