Everyone has or will deal with the arbitrary number governments put on when they feel like you should drink. In an organized society, it is expected that rules will be created in the effort to create a safe environment for everyone. The question becomes at what age should you be legally allowed to drink alcohol. Currently USA establishes that you become a legal adult at age 18 but you are not allowed to drink alcohol until 21.
The way the amendment came to be by lobbyists and blackmail. MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, portrayed effectively to congress that the country would be safer if the drinking age was moved to 21, regardless of other dangers we face like archaic gun laws. Never the less the government decided to move the drinking age to 21, and the way the Federal government made sure the state’s would ratify the amendment was by using blackmail. The government would withhold money used for the Department of Transportation if the states did not ratify the amendment.
This brings up several different points; by reading the constitution does the national government have the power to denote when you can or cannot do something based on an arbitrary number like age? Also the way the government went about enforcing the amendment, it could be considered an abuse of the money and power, which should come from the people of the United States.
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2 comments:
I disagree with the drinking age. The US government is being hypocritical by declaring 18 the age of adulthood, but restricting the liberties that come with it. If the drinking age was lowered, and moderate consumption of alcohol by people of all ages was the norm, people would not abuse it so much because they would be accustomed to it!
That is exactly right, it just is human nature to want things that are being denied from you. By denying alcohol from people, it only drives the need of people to drink it. That is the very reason why prohibition failed so completely and utterly.
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