How do ages for certain things get decided...? And do you agree w/ the laws?

Question

(Sure hope I don't get reported again for asking a Q in more than one category...but I'll take my chances! LOL!)


Just a few examples...you can be sent to war at 18, but you can't have a beer before 21. (Not promoting beer-drinking...just a question!)

You have to have a license to drive a vehicle, & can get it when you are 16. But there is no license required to become a parent, & LOTS of peeps under 16 do that!! (Hell, lots of peeps OVER 16 aren't prepared or equipped for it!! LOL!)
Sometimes the "laws" just crack me up.

(Not condemnation necessary--intelligent thoughts only, please...all ages welcome to respond!)

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure all this limits are decided separately from one another. Otherwise it doesn't make any sence, just like you said.

All thses decisions must be coming from a different angle:

"Aw, you're too young for alcohol, we are just taking care of you, that's all"
"Country needs you. This is why you can go to war when you're 18" (Actually, I think it is done on purpose: 18 year old are not mature enough to think "I don't want to go to your stupid war and take your stupid orders" so they make better soldiers. Older soldiers are more likely to be demoralized by their own thoughts about the war.)

As for driving and child-making - well, reckless driving endangers others, and it is relatively easy to control who do you give the licence to. With immature child-making - they don't ask anyone, they just make'em.

Answer 2

I couldn't agree more, age is an arbitrary number with less relation to maturity than we think. Take the age of consent laws, I mean those are just unfair! jk jk, ;)

Age limits are obviously necessary, it's just hard to tell where to draw the line. It's usually done by some warped sense of morality, out of some notion of fairness, or in most cases simply to combat a widespread problem.

NJ is a state about the size of the average mid-western farm with 9 million people in it, needless to say driving is a disaster. 9 years ago I got my temporary permit at 16, and my license at 17.
In some other states kids get their license at 15, in NJ it's 17 and there are still an amazing number of automobile accidents and fatalities. To try and combat that, and to try and lower our already highest-in-the-nation insurance rates, the law has changed at least twice in the past 9 years. I believe now kids can get a temporary permit at 16, a conditional license (doesn't allow driving during the night, with more than one other person in the car, etc) at 17, and a driver's license at 18.

The moral of the story, it turns out, is that 18 year olds are crappy drivers to, because automobile fatalities rates didn't drop a bit. Rather than take steps to make it more difficult to get a license, or requiring more education and driver testing, we just keep bumping the age up hoping to hit the point where the dangerous drivers are off the streets. In which case I predict you'll have to be 35 to get a conditional license in NJ in the future.

The voting age was lowered for the exact reason you mentioned, if someone can be drafted to war at age 18 they should certainly be able to vote. So we changed the US constitution to allow them to vote and...they still didn't vote. Voter turnout for 18-24 year olds is abyssimal. I certainly agree people should be able to vote at 18, it just doesn't matter since history has shown they don't.

Alcohol laws are a lost cause, I see zero reason why a legal adult shouldn't be able to choose to drink at 18. But they can't, mainly because 18 year olds do dumb things when they drink. The only problem here is that ALL people do dumb things when they drink.

Answer 3

I agree with you, 100%, on each point you make. My mom needed to be 21 to vote when she was young - but her friends were being sent to Vietnam at 18 (they could drink in New York and some other states then, though).

In New York City, you still need to be 18 to drive, but people there also vote at 18 since the early 1970s.

I don't think that there should be government involvement in pregnancies - though there should be more parents able to be home to prevent early ones.

My mom was carded to buy cigarettes a few weeks ago - and believe me, she doesn't look under 40.

Answer 4

The regulations desperate by utilising age are many times desperate by utilising potential, neccesity, and progression. The destroy-Down: *you may bypass to conflict at 18 considering the fact which you're considered a criminal grownup, to that end, it is your determination. *The eating age replaced into set at 21 as a results of shown fact that's whilst, compromise allowing, the the government felt human beings could desire to deal with eating. the techniques supposedly maintains to advance till one is 24. *At age sixteen, there is the desire for toddlers topersistent themselves places. additionally, maximum have the motor skills and theory technique to be waiting topersistent succesfully. *In maximum states, the age of consent is sixteen years previous. So, technically, there's a regulation. This, despite the fact that, isn't undemanding to enfornce, no longer no longer in elementary terms like the eating regulations. If it did no longer condemn civil rights, i think of there could be a parenting license of varieties, choosing who could be suitable to shelter childrens. actual, i think of the eating age factor basically harms the device. If it have been non-existant, then human beings could be much less enticed to drink. This additionally falls interior the comparable classification as a results of fact the fool-ness of drug prohibition - basically inflicting various injury.