That would be kinda odd, considering the drinking age varies from country to country and it isn’t 21 in most of them. In Germany, for example, you can drink (in

That would be kinda odd, considering the drinking age varies from country to country and it isn’t 21 in most of them. In Germany, for example, you can drink (in public) and buy beer and wine when you turn 16, all other alcohol when you turn 18. Wikipedia has this informative table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_drinking_age I would summarize it as follows: 18 wins. I suspect not for any scientific reasons. So what’s the history of the 21? 21 was the age of majority when prohibition ended. Most states set their legal drinking age accordingly and that’s that. Today all states have 21 as the legal drinking age since they would lose federal funding if the didn’t. By the way, today the age of majority is 18 in all but three states. All those drinking age limits are arbitrary. I’m actually fine with that, as long as grownups can buy alcohol. Alcohol may still be harmful for 18-year-olds (well, even more harmful than alcohol is anyway) but I don’t think it’s the government’s job to tell grownups what to do when it comes to things like alcohol or smoking or various (not sure whether I want to write all) other drugs. (It’s even possible to have a sensible argument about whether younger kids should be allowed to buy alcohol. When you drink too much beer when you are 16 in Germany you can’t kill anyone driving since you can only get your driver’s license with 18. Maybe those two years give those kids the time to get it out of their system and to learn about the effects alcohol has on them. On the other hand American’s can already have up to five years of driving experience when they are first legally allowed to drink, but I don’t think experience helps you when you are drunk driving. You just shouldn’t do it. That would be an interesting social science study – are young Americans or Germans more likely to drunk drive?)