In Defense of "Underage" Drinking

Mercurial Times ^ | March 1, 2002 | Aaron Armitage

[freebilly]

Sow the whirlwind, reap the whirlwind.

Now, as a practical aside, very few people over the age of 21 care to have the drinking age abolished. The underage drinkers who consume 11% of the alcohol in this country will have to continue to do so in violation of the law. It may not be fair or logical that 18 year olds can get killed in battle but can't legally buy a beer, but hey, life ain't fair or logical.

[xm177e2]

The underage drinkers who consume 11% of the alcohol in this country will have to continue to do so in violation of the law

11% really isn't that much, considering that includes kids 18, 19, and 20 years old. That's just 1/9th the alcohol in America, for ALL teenagers and young adults.

From someone's 18th birthday to their 21st is 3 years. 3 years divided by 1/9th is 27 years. That means if everyone drank the same amount of alcohol every year from the age 18 until they turned 48, (and then if people over 48 drank nine times as much total as kids under 18), then underage people would be drinking 11% of the alcohol in America. 11% is really not that much at all.

We need to do something to raise this tragic figure! LEGALIZE ALCOHOL FOR 18-year-olds, NOW!

[A.J.Armitage]

Sow the whirlwind, reap the whirlwind.

So which policy now in place is sowing the whirlwind?

Now, as a practical aside, very few people over the age of 21 care to have the drinking age abolished. The underage drinkers who consume 11% of the alcohol in this country will have to continue to do so in violation of the law.

And as a practical aside from your "practical aside", they will continue to do so in violation of law.

It may not be fair or logical that 18 year olds can get killed in battle but can't legally buy a beer, but hey, life ain't fair or logical.

By which argument any and all evils can be justified. I'm reminded of the Devil's Dictionary's definition of a conservative: "A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others." I, of course, am neither.

[freebilly]

No, you're neither. You're a Libertarian-- which can best be described as someone who behaves like a prostitute but justifies her behavior like a attorney (The worst of all possible combinations):^)

[A.J.Armitage]

Out comes the old (and very tired) libertarian=libertine "argument". Even if it were true, it would have nothing to do with whether we're right, and it isn't true. And I'm a guy.

[Equality 7-2521]

The 25 percent figure was what Thomas Sowell calls an "Aha! statistic".

I've recently read about the Social Norming program that was tested at NIU and is now in use at more than 40 universities across the nation. I was reminded of it because of these stats and because reporting that "almost half of college students at college X are occasional binge drinkers" reinforces the misconception that every else is drinking a lot and therefore it is a social norm; whereas reporting that "greater than 50% of students never binge drink" means the exact same thing and changes the perception where social norms are concerned.

Of course the fact that this was tested at NIU brought you and this article to mind.