"If You Get Shot At, You Can Have A Shot"
That, writes Glenn Reynolds in the WSJ, is the thinking behind Alaska State Rep and Vietnam vet Bob Lynn's effort to establish a drinking age of 18 for active-duty service members:
Defenders of the status quo claim that highway deaths have fallen since the drinking age was raised to 21 from 18, but those claims obscure the fact that this decline merely continued a trend that was already present before the drinking age changed--and one that involved every age group, not merely those 18-21. Research by economist Jeffrey A. Miron and lawyer Elina Tetelbaum indicates that a drinking age of 21 doesn't save lives but does promote binge drinking and contempt for the law.Safety is the excuse, but what is really going on here is something more like prohibition. A nation that cares about freedom--and that has already learned that prohibition was a failure--should know better. As Atlantic Monthly columnist Megan McArdle writes, "A drinking age of 21 is an embarrassment to a supposedly liberty-loving nation. If you are old enough to enlist, and old enough to vote, you are old enough to swill cheap beer in the company of your peers."
Military service members used to be able to drink alcohol at age 18 in on-base clubs, but that practice ended during the Reagan administration. It's always stuck in the craw of younger military members.
Robert Evans at April 13, 2011 2:00 AM
Maybe deaths fell because seatbelt use went up
NicoleK at April 13, 2011 5:16 AM
If your old enough to die for your country, then you are certainly old enough to enjoy a beer.
It's funny to me how smoking is legal at 18, which is FAR more dangerous in the long term, and voting, but drinking a beer isn't.
It's completely illogical.
Sabrinaq at April 13, 2011 5:43 AM
Establish an age for being considered an adult and be done with it. In Japan, it's twenty.
Kids shouldn't drink, drive, vote, be able to marry, be allowed to have credit in their names, enlist, sign a contract...
I don't think too many would argue for twenty-one.
MarkD at April 13, 2011 5:49 AM
"Defenders of the status quo claim that highway deaths have fallen since the drinking age was raised to 21 from 18"
I looked into this a while back. Automobile deaths per passenger-mile held pretty steady from 1970 to 1990, when it began declining. So the statement above is true on its face, but it's misleading because the start of the decline does not correlate to when the drinking age was raised back up (circa 1981).
I've with all of the above who say that if you're old enough to serve, you're old enough to drink.
Cousin Dave at April 13, 2011 6:47 AM
Age of consent for drinking and sex should be 14. Keep the state out of as many areas as possible.
BOTU at April 13, 2011 9:56 AM
In Ontario the legal age is 19, and we all used to hop over the border into Quebec(the legal age there is 18) to get drunk.
Angel at April 13, 2011 12:34 PM
In Washington State there are differing requirements to obtain a state ID card for under 18 ; 18-25 years and 25 +. Like someone 24 is not an actual adult?
One age for voting, drinking and enlisting... and obtaining ID cards.
LauraGr at April 13, 2011 12:48 PM
In Germany the age for drinking and smoking is 16, the age for driving is 18 and oddly enough they have less fatalities per passenger mile than the US... despite the fact that the Autobahn has an open ended speed limit (in many stretches anyway). Why is that?
Neil G. at April 13, 2011 12:55 PM
Nothing to do with age, everything to do with attitude. Germans are SERIOUS about driving. Americans apply the same "That'll do" attitude to driving that they do everything else.
brian at April 13, 2011 1:04 PM
I was in the notch when the military went to states age. I was in Teaxs as they upped the age a year at a time. I would be able to drink for 9 months, then have wait three months again.
It was about as stupid as you can get.
BTW, you know how the fed got all the states to toe the line? Federal highway funding. If your state didn't raise the age, they would miss out on at least a portion the funds. So it the Federal nany state in action again.
Jim P. at April 13, 2011 1:10 PM
Jim - that's the only way the fed can actually compel an individual to do anything - bribe the states into doing it for them.
brian at April 13, 2011 2:10 PM
Steve Chapman defends the higher drinking age in Reason:
http://reason.com/archives/2008/08/21/the-perils-of-a-lower-drinking
Conan the Grammarian at April 13, 2011 2:13 PM
Do you honestly think people are not drinking at 18? I began sucking heavy suds at 16 and have not stopped since. This country always punishes the many, for the stupidity of the few. Change the drinking age to be the same as that of being a legal adult, end of discussion.
ronc at April 13, 2011 3:01 PM
"Nothing to do with age, everything to do with attitude. Germans are SERIOUS about driving."
@Brian is correct about that. I had a friend in high school whose parents were from Germany. They let their teenagers drink beer (within reason). According to them if you got a DWI in Germany even once, the penalties were extensive and costly. They applied the same philosophy with their kids, and there was hell to pay if they drove anywhere after drinking even a beer.
With all that in mind, I still couldn't be one of those parents who allowed high school parties with alcohol in their home.
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Aat Distance Learning at October 12, 2011 12:46 AM
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