Why is everyone so anti alcohol in the U.S.?

Question

I am searching through yahoo answers, and I see a bunch of people saying how bad it is for minors(under 21) to get ahold of alcohol and how it kills them. Well, if they dont drink AND drive, it isn't anymore dangerous than anything else. And look at every other country in the world, the legal drinking age is 18, not 21. What makes you able to vote and go to war when you can't drink without getting criticized. I just think it is really dumb the whole anti-alcohol thought system we have in the u.s. And I think making you wait till 21 really makes no difference, not like you can't get it before then, and when you do turn 21, you are just gonna go overboard anyway.

Walking on Sunshine, no one said 16 or 13. At 18 you are an adult and can do anything...except drink. And I was looking at the other countries as an example of this.

Answer 1

I'm not from the US (from the UK) but I do agree with you, 21 seems way too high an age restriction, and seems laughable compared to age restrictions for other things. I don't know about drink-driving in the US, but in the UK it's pretty socially unacceptable to do it, which reinforces the law itself, so as far as I know it isn't a critical problem among young people.

Answer 2

The problem is "under 21" I know by your comment that you mean 18 - but some might say if 18 is OK then why not 16 or 13 - it becomes a rat hole of opinion and no one listens. The 21 law is actually supposed to help the youth get some college under their belt before cutting loose (21 is the Jr year for most colleges). the theory is if you at least have an associates before you start drinking you will be able to handle the responsibility. True anyone can obtain alcohol before 21 but how wise will they be when they are 21 if they don't study now? I like the 21 drinking age and encourage it's enforcement in my home by rewarding any of my nephews and nieces as well as kids who stay sober with a all expense chaperoned bar hopping party in Vegas - to date no one has made it (my fund is huge now) but I keep hoping.

Answer 3

I really dont know anyone that will actually wait until they are 21 to drink but i agree that a person would just go overboard on their b-day if they are that anal about the law. If u just look at the age and consider everything else that an 18 year old is able to do, it doesn't seem fair at all. But, if your parent buys it for you, its ok. There just has to be some sort of supervision, because when a teen isnt supervised and drinking heavily, it can become quite dangerous. Coming from a 22 yr old, there is a big difference between the maturity level of a 21yr old and 18 year old (except for when it comes to my boyfriend, lol). @ 21, your peers arent high school kids anymore (usually), you've been exposed to more responsibility and you can make better decisions than a hormone driven teen. As far as fighting wars, they better have alcohol galore for those 18yr olds(tee hee) but think about the heavy supervision that they have as well. Not just officers, but fellow soldiers are going to look out for each other's well being because they need each other. But I definately didnt wait until i was 21 and i cant even see myself making my children wait on a number. It just is based on resposibility and im not sure how that law was initiated, but i cant see congress ( or whoever does it) electing to change it. I can just imagine that on a ballot... I bet teens would vote then! :)

--- in response to Doodaybadooday... that is true. When i think about alcohol and high school, usually people only did it to fit in. and if you drink to fit in, there is no telling what you would do to fit in while you are plastered

Answer 4

the USA is a very big country.. attitudes change state to state... or even city to city...

In Milwaukee a town built on its brewing tradition, there is a different attitude than in Georgia where you cannot buy beer on Sunday....

In Buffalo you can drink in a bar until 4 am... in New York City only 2am...

In Maine you can buy beer, wine and liquor in the grocery store; in Massachusetts you have to buy beer in a package store.... in Pennsylvania you can only buy beer in 6 packs.....

there is a cult of cleanliness as I like to call them that wants all Americans to not smoke or drink and they are quite ridiculous in their requests in my opinion.

abuse of alcohol isn't cool at any rate... having a pint or two after work with friends at the pub is alright tho.

My high school German teacher says that in Germany people live a lot closer together and they have more public transportation than we have in America.. and that Americans try to drive and that's the problem here.. she smugly said we were immature... but she was old and was once a member of the NAZI party so what does she know... off topic!!..

18 yeah that was ok in the USA until 1980 there were too many kids dying in car crashes for the D.E.A. to tolerate.... or that is the excuse .. honestly I didn't go overboard when I was 21.. I went overboard when I was 19... and I'm American born n raised baby!

Answer 5

The problem is that people in the USA don't seem to drink responsibly, just drink to get drunk.

As for your legal drinking age, I have no clue why it's 21, here in Canada it's 19 which is still weird. I agree it should be 18.

But realize that kids are starting to drink younger and younger, and drink harder at younger ages, if this doesn't stop then the legal drinking age will likely increase instead of decrease just to try to get the point across.

Answer 6

ahhh this brings me back; the peer rigidity around ingesting. great age. first i in basic terms choose to assert that the legal a while for ingesting all over the area is ridiculous. it would be sixteen or maybe youthful, i advise childrens are going to get it no count what, no component in making a regulation. i additionally think of making it so taboo and strictly forbidden makes childrens choose to do it much extra. ive been ingesting for the reason that i became approximately sixteen i'd say. in europe, or a minimum of the place i come from, the age is eighteen yet they on no account id you. ive been determining to purchase alcohol for the reason that i became 13 at bars. and the priority is, even nevertheless we be able to drink at the form of youthful age, not many childrens do and in the event that they do they are clever. it form of feels all human beings care approximately is getting '**** confronted'. truly immature. whilst it is composed of alcohol or any form of drug, you are the single that must be waiting for it, it doesnt count what everybody else says or maybe the regulation (or path you should be careful to not get caught if its unlawful) It doesnt sound such as you go with to, even nevertheless no offense you in addition to mght form of sound like a *****. possibly you should attempt a splash. youll understand its not that undesirable. or you should fake to drink via keeping a tumbler of water or something. lol

Answer 7

That's kind of a long story. The U.S. was founded, at least in part, by people whose primary identification was with one religious group or another; those religous groups tended to be fairly ascetic and strict. Those people gained a lot of power, and eventually their particular notion of morality led to the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919, prohibiting alcohol in the U.S. That, as you might imagine, didn't go over very well for very long, and it was repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933 (the only amendment ever made to have been repealed). The attitude that drinking is "sinful" was still very strong in the U.S., however. As a result, many young people are not exposed to alcohol in their daily lives, and come to regard it as something forbidden that, if they can acquire it, will "prove" that they are adult. Obviously this isn't true, but being children, they don't see that this isn't correct. Because they must often acquire it in secret, and because they lack experience with it and with a reasonable attitude toward alcohol from adults, they tend to overindulge. As you might imagine, this is when the problems start to happen.

To answer this, laws have been enacted to prohibit drinking until the age of 21, but of course, huge amounts of underage drinking goes on. It's sort of a vicious cycle - more prohibition leads to more mystery and mystique, and that leads to more drinking, which in turn leads to more prohibition!

As it happens, I'm Jewish, and because we do not treat alcohol as something that is inherently sinful, we have statistically a MUCH lower rate of alcoholism than the general public. Our children see moderate, responsible drinking from an early age, as do most children in Europe. That is not to say that there aren't ANY problems, of course, but they're relatively rare. I believe that kind of attitude is going to have to be adopted by a lot more people, whatever their beliefs, before alcohol ceases to be a problem in the U.S.

Answer 8

I whole -heartedly agree with you! People look at me here in the US like I'm crazy when I tell them I was able to drink where I lived in Singapore when I was 18. I think we are the only country in the world with this high of an age limitation. If our public transportation system was better here we wouldn't have to worry about drunken teenagers driving or any drunkard driving for that matter!

Answer 9

Personally, I think it's the abuse of alcohol that is bad. Not alcohol. For crying out loud - even Jesus drank.

I grew up being allowed to taste various alcoholic drinks. So when I became a teeanger and even until now, I see alcohol as something you drink to enjoy, not used to get drunk off.

Answer 10

The problem is America's way of dealing with alcohol. We make it out to be such a huge thing in our country - one of those things being making it illegal until you're 21 - when in a lot of other countries, kids grow up with it openly. In a lot of countries, wine is a given with lunch and dinners, where as here, we make it such a huge deal...don't touch, can't have, illegal, etc...All of that just makes it that much more enticing for kids to try it - excessively! It's sad, really.