"Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Swipe"
That's the name of Andrew A. Schwartz' Utah Law Review critique of the nanny state Act -- which he terms the "Infancy Rule in the Federal Credit Card Act." It prohibits 18-year-olds, who can be drafted to fight wars for their country, from contracting for a credit card. Ted Frank blogs at Point of Law:
The CARD Act does not just insult the dignity of 20-year-olds by infantilizing them, but hurts the rest of us by limiting the ability of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds from fully participating in society.
Schwatz' abstract from Jeff Sovern, blogging at Public Citizen:
In the 1960s and 1970s, American society came to the considered conclusion that if eighteen-year-olds can be drafted to fight and possibly die for their country, they should be treated as adults under the law. Thus, in 1971, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age to eighteen from twenty one, was proposed and ratified in just three months, making it the fastest amendment in American history. The minimum age for federal and state jury service was also lowered to eighteen from twenty one. And, with regard to contract law, every state passed legislation reducing the age of contractual capacity to eighteen. These changes overrode the centuries-old common law rule that one becomes an adult, in the eyes of the law, at age twenty-one, this being premised on the then-relevant custom that Englishmen became eligible for knighthood at that age. Despite the fact that all of these reforms remain in place, the federal "Credit CARD Act of 2009" established twenty-one as the minimum age to contract for a credit card.This Article criticizes this "infancy rule" of the CARD Act, found in section 301, in two ways. First, in the late twentieth century, we decided that eighteen-year-olds really are adults that deserve to be treated with dignity by the law, and this view has not changed. This basic principle was the driving force behind the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which in 1971 lowered the minimum age to vote to eighteen, as well as state and federal statutes that lowered the age to serve on a jury to eighteen, not to mention the state statutes lowering the age of contractual capacity to eighteen. In declaring all those under twenty one to be infants, section 301 runs badly afoul of this broad societal consensus, rolls back the clock to medieval times, and undermines the dignity of eighteen-year-olds.
Second, separate and apart from the harm section 301 directly inflicts on young people, the CARD Act's infancy rule hurts society at large. This is because the state statutory reforms of the 1970s that endowed eighteen-year-olds with the capacity to enter into binding contracts ushered in the new and hugely beneficial phenomenon of youthful entrepreneurship. Young people, aged eighteen to twenty, were now able to obtain credit and found start-up companies, such as Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft at age nineteen, and Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook at the same age. These and other youthful start-ups employ hundreds of thousands of people, and their products and services improve our lives. Under section 301 of the CARD Act, however, they likely never would have been launched. In short, by hampering youthful entrepreneurship, section 301 harms not only the youths themselves, but society as a whole.
via @WalterOlson
Idiotic. They can enter into a contract with the military or employment, they enter into marriage or civil union, but they can't get a credit card?
On the other hand, we deny these people the right to drink. And if it means that I don't have to hear a twenty-something whine piteously about all the credit card debt they racked up in their teen years, then that's a plus.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 15, 2012 8:35 AM
So, which credit card company does he work for?
Jake at January 15, 2012 9:11 AM
I don't see what's so great about treating 18-year-olds as adults. As more than one person has pointed out, "we were embarrassed about the wrong thing" when we lowered the voting age instead of raising the draft age to 21. We just couldn't stand the thought of losing all that cannon fodder.
Besides, there are very good reasons that:
1) 18-year-olds are often (unofficially) not considered informed or mature enough to vote
2) many people would rather see teens smoking pot than drinking beer
3) almost no adult thinks it's good for anyone to marry as a teen, if it can be avoided.
And, as humorist Fran Lebowitz wrote in the 1970s:
"If you reside in a state where you attain your legal majority while still in your teens, pretend that you don't. There isn't an adult alive who would want to be contractually bound by a decision he came to at the age of nineteen."
(To read more of her "Tips for Teens," see here):
http://www.bizbag.com/Tips%20for%20Teens/Tips%20for%20Teens.htm
lenona at January 15, 2012 12:15 PM
This is ridiculous, but for another reason:
18-year-olds would be fit to make their own decisions - if they were expected to.
Instead, we coddle, and coddle, and coddle to those who whine that they want a "do over!" - at every age.
Now there will be a feedback loop reinforcing this: teens too intent on talking on the cell phone about trivial bullshit will fail to act as responsible citizens, after all, by not saying a word to their representatives.
If they would vote, they would be heard.
Radwaste at January 15, 2012 12:28 PM
So an eighteen-year-old on his own can't put his bill for a root canal or car repair on a credit card, but he can rack up tens of thousands of dollars in student loans for an education of questionable value. Lovely.
One way or another, our hypothetical eighteen-year-old has to get his teeth or car fixed. Probably, he'll borrow the money from friends or family, and whether he defaults or pays it all back on time, it won't go on his credit report. Not so with a credit card.
If a credit card company wants to give a $10,000 line of credit to an adult teenager, that's between the two of them. It reminds me of the saying on how you learn to make good decisions.
Lori at January 15, 2012 1:59 PM
Readers should also remember that an 18 year old can't legally drink a beer, or buy a handgun either. It's a little simplistic to say that when you hit 18 years old you're considered an adult in the eyes of the law.
Mike Hunter at January 15, 2012 8:51 PM
IIRC, Nixon cancelled the draft in 1972 or thereabouts, been an all-volunteer force since then.
yak at January 15, 2012 8:52 PM
Explain why I still had to sign a draft card in 1998 or face up to 5 yrs in prison and a $250,000 dollar fine,
Also many scholarships require registration as well
lujlp at January 16, 2012 4:46 AM
I'm amazed I have to explain these things.
Here you go.
There's very much the air of the criminal enterprise in American armed efforts - well, there would be if it was better reasoned. So long as Congress doesn't declare war per the Constitution, your neighbors can arbitrarily be ordered off to kill anyone politically unpleasant. For votes.
Radwaste at January 16, 2012 8:27 AM
Re: Selective Service:
I think I helped get the Selective Service system to finally coordinate with the military in the 1985/6 time frame.
The way it worked is that I turned 18 early in my senior year of high school, so I didn't have to register because of the automatic school deferment. By January of my senior year I was DEP'd (Delayed Enlistment) into the USAF.
My mother forwarded a letter from the Selective Service about not being registered and all the possible penalties. I replied with a very blunt, sarcastic letter postmarked from a USAF AFB and sent it directly to the regional director about coordinating records with the military. Six months later an article was published about the coordination between the two agencies.
I just had to laugh about it.
Jim P. at January 16, 2012 7:08 PM
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