Lower drinking age, raise driving age, reward the responsible
A bunch of college presidents have raised the question of our very high drinking age and its failures (widespread contempt for the law through almost universal lawbreaking, unhealthy binge drinking perhaps due to the mystique of illicit and adult behavior). They are calling for a younger legal drinking age.
Defenders of the status quo have two words for them: drunk driving. Teenagers are already poor drivers and drunk teenage drivers are very bad things.
So therefore we should focus on road safety and raise the driving age. We shouldn't create a mystique about alcohol in order to stop a few dumb teenagers from driving drunk. We should just raise the driving age to make the roads safer for everyone.
And to really get nuanced we can offer a graduated license to younger would-be drinkers if they take a class just like Illinois law currently gives a drivers license to those under 18 only if they pass a class.
The status quo is too blunt a policy.
1 comments:
Raising the driving age is next to impossible. Americans view driving as a right.
I have seen commentators talk about the image of drunk driving now versus in the 60s and 70s. I was not around then so I can not comment on it.
I see some of my friends take the hard line against drunk driving by refusing to enter cars in which the driver has had anything to drink. I would consider this an extreme position.
Are you saying 18 for both, and if you take extra classes then you can drive at 16?
That does not make any sense to me. What if drinking is allowed at 14 in the vicinity of your family? I don't know how I plan to help my future kids understand drugs, but I imagine that I will want to be there with them on some of the first steps. I just hope that I am doing it in a way that respects the law, being a bit of a nation of laws nerd...
Post a Comment