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Should the age of majority be lowered?

Johnny

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Are we keeping kids "kids" for too long?

Should the age of majority be lowered to 16? The age to vote, enter contracts, purchase alcohol and all other rights and duties of adulthood.


Please state why or why not and what you think the pros and cons would be.
 
Are we keeping kids "kids" for too long?

Should the age of majority be lowered to 16? The age to vote, enter contracts, purchase alcohol and all other rights and duties of adulthood.


Please state why or why not and what you think the pros and cons would be.

No. A 16-year-old has only been functioning as a quasi-adult for, what? Maybe 4 years, being generous? A child is a child. Eighteen is soon enough. And to those states that keep the drinking age at 21, I say good deal. To those who say, "Yeah, but we can go and die for our country....why can't we drink?" I say, drink on the army base where you can do Jello shots with impunity. Sixteen-year-olds are children. Frankly? Eighteen-year-olds aren't much better.
 
Actually in the military if you're caught drinking underage you get NJP'd. It's bull**** too. The base enforces the state drinkng age on base.
 
no, at 18, people are more or less mature adults, so they should be able to drink, vote etc.
 
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Are we keeping kids "kids" for too long?

Should the age of majority be lowered to 16? The age to vote, enter contracts, purchase alcohol and all other rights and duties of adulthood.


Please state why or why not and what you think the pros and cons would be.

No. It should be raised. 18 is too young. It was 21 for a long time and there was no reason to lower it.
 
16 is good to learn to drive (if you haven't been already). 18 is a good time to consider the person a full adult as they are done with High School typically at that point and such. I think the drinking age should be lower to, or that at the very least we actually leave it up to the States without federal blackmail. I don't even know how that's legal. Once you're able to vote and enter contracts without needing a guardian, you're an adult and should be entitled to everything adults can do.
 
Yes, the age of majority should be lowered to sixteen. At least.

Even in this thread we have seen the peril of raising it further. Now we are talking about eighteen year olds as children and raising the age of full adulthood even further. They are justifying this by claiming the brain is not fully developed into later in the 20s.

When does it stop?
 
Yes, the age of majority should be lowered to sixteen. At least.

Even in this thread we have seen the peril of raising it further. Now we are talking about eighteen year olds as children and raising the age of full adulthood even further. They are justifying this by claiming the brain is not fully developed into later in the 20s.

When does it stop?

The age of 63 I think :mrgreen:
 
then should we be able to disenfranchise eldery people who's brain function is not up to scratch, or people with learning disorders and brain injury?

Thats a good question and one that I do not have a ready answer for because usually old people have a lifetime of experience they can act on even if they do some have some inability while children do not. I am not sure how that would weigh out.
 
I think back to what I was like at 16 I have to respond with an emphatic no.
 
Thats a good question and one that I do not have a ready answer for because usually old people have a lifetime of experience they can act on even if they do some have some inability while children do not. I am not sure how that would weigh out.

well then, look at it like the earlier people reach their majority, the earlier they'll gain the necessary experience to draw upon to make wiser decisions in the future, and at 18 they are capable of making mature decisions, learning from experience, and if they take on responsibility while their brain still exhibits plasticity, it'll form the neural connections to make them more prone to responsibility in the future. ( i presume anyway, i'm no neurologist)
 
People do not become adults because they get older. They become adults because they assume adult responsibilities. If children are given more responsibilities and the age of majority is lowered, they will become responsible adults sooner. If the age of majority is increased, children will simply remain immature longer.
 
Are we keeping kids "kids" for too long?

Should the age of majority be lowered to 16? The age to vote, enter contracts, purchase alcohol and all other rights and duties of adulthood.


Please state why or why not and what you think the pros and cons would be.

two thoughts.

1-No-as Mega pointed out, their brains arent even fully developed and while SOME could handle the responsibility most wont

then again

2-Hell yes...and kick them out of the house, make them be adults. No nanny state, no government support...no mommy and daddy paying living expenses. hell yes...get out there on your own. have too much fun.

I did it much younger and my brother when he was 15. Minor miracles...truly "there but for the grace of God" type stuff...that we arent both dead.
 
18 is the age at which most people finish high school and/or start college. So it makes sense to keep it there. Having it any younger is kind of pointless, since they will almost certainly still be reliant on and living with their parents, and not have much opportunity not to be without dropping out of school.
 
18 is the age at which most people finish high school and/or start college. So it makes sense to keep it there. Having it any younger is kind of pointless, since they will almost certainly still be reliant on and living with their parents, and not have much opportunity not to be without dropping out of school.

Most kids attend college. They're still dependent upon their parents for well into their twenties.
 
Most kids attend college. They're still dependent upon their parents for well into their twenties.

They're still dependent into their twenties, but it's a very different circumstance between up to high school and after high school. The option to live away from the parents becomes more open and much more often taken up, and the opportunity to work for one's own living becomes a lot more reasonable than it is in high school. And anyways, I don't think it's a good idea to raise the age of adulthood into the twenties when they're completely independent. It just makes sense for me that the age of that transition would be the age of adulthood, rather than earlier (or later).
 
Have to agree with Dav.

In many ancient cultures, the age of majority was 14 or 15... BUT the young "adult" was still under the guidance and mentorship of either his parents or the artisan he was apprenticed to, or his triari sergeant or centurion. In some cultures you were not independent of parental control until your parent died.

Also, bear in mind many people didn't survive their 20s and not many lived to be 50 in ancient times... life had to get going sooner or the species wouldn't have survived.


I agree that most kids these days are being raised to remain immature and irresponsible too long, but I don't think simply changing the legal age of majority would accomplish much. A change in parenting is required instead: giving kids 10-15 yo measured doses of liberty and responsibility which are equal and coordinate (directly related to each other} is the way to build a more mature and responsible teenager and young adult.

Many young people are still acting like a kid at 23 because their parents treat them that way, supporting them and/or bailing them out of their own bad choices repeatedly.... and this despite them being "legally adult".

We do it to our own kids by the way we treat them, not due to legal adulthood age.
 
Yes, they could lower it. There are many bad 16 year-olds who know that they are commiting crimes and aren't getting in enough trouble for it. As for the drinking age, it should stay the same at 21; if you ask me I think drinking should be illegal period.
 
Are we keeping kids "kids" for too long?

Should the age of majority be lowered to 16? The age to vote, enter contracts, purchase alcohol and all other rights and duties of adulthood.


Please state why or why not and what you think the pros and cons would be.


What real difference would it make when so many remain partly to fully dependent on their parents until they are 22-25yo? And then often come back in their 30's with kids in tow after a divorce, and stay for 6mos to a few years...



If you're living in my house, living off my earnings, guess what? I get to tell you what to do. Don't like it? There's the door...



Edited to add: I didn't realize that this was an old thread someone had Zombie'd.
 
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I'm against an age-based system of majority in the first place. Children develop and mature at different rates. The benefits and responsibilities of adulthood should be granted when the person can prove they are ready for them.

Since this is unlikely to happen though, I'd be fine with just making the age of majority 18 for everything.
 
If you're living in my house, living off my earnings, guess what? I get to tell you what to do. Don't like it? There's the door...

Noone is suggesting that we change that. Lowering the age of majority only means that young adults are actually legally free to choose the door.

I tried to move out of my father's house and make it on my own at 15. The police arrested me and brought me back, and I got put into one of those "tough love" programs.
 
no, at 18, people are more or less mature adults, so they should be able to drink, vote etc.

if you are old enough to serve your country and die for it you are old enough to exercise any other right

if someone cannot be trusted with a beer WTH do we give them a machine that can allow them to kill 1000 people in a minute
 
Actually in the military if you're caught drinking underage you get NJP'd. It's bull**** too. The base enforces the state drinkng age on base.

Probably one of the greatest hypocrisies in modern American..."you can die in battle Johnny, but put down that beer first".
 
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