Raising the Legal Drinking Age

[Formaldehyde]

Here's some choice irony. This absurd law is supposed to drastically lower the number of people killed on the highway.

U.S. Lags in Reducing Traffic Fatalities, Report Shows

The United States can no longer claim to be among the top nations in safety standards, the report says. While France and 15 other high-income nations cut their traffic fatalities by half from 1995 to 2009, the United States showed only a 19 percent reduction over that same time period. Britain dropped the number of fatal accidents by 39 percent over the last 15 years, and Australia by 25 percent.

“There is a notable gap between traffic safety progress in the U.S. and other nations that deserves our attention,” Clinton V. Oster Jr., chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said in a statement. Mr. Oster suggested America could learn from what countries like Sweden, Britain and the Netherlands were doing.

Fat chance the US will listen to any other country regarding any issue.

 

[Karalysia]

If they really wanted to cut down on drunk driving they could raise the driving age to 21, and reduce the drinking age to 16 or 18.

 

[Formaldehyde]

That makes even less sense. I learned how to drive at 14 and had a completely unrestricted license at 16.

 

[bhsup]

Not meaning to draw away from the alcohol age limit topic of this thread, but I'd like to bring up one thing to possibly account for the slower pace in the reduction of highway deaths we're seeing in America. In 1995 (IIRC...though they'd allowed 65 on some highways since the 80s), Congress repealed the federal 55 mpg limit. Our highway speeds have dramatically increased since then.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

federal 55 mpg limit.

55 miles per gallon. Is this even possible in anything except a tiny hybrid? And what does gas have to do with highway speed?

 

[Cutlass]

Not meaning to draw away from the alcohol age limit topic of this thread, but I'd like to bring up one thing to possibly account for the slower pace in the reduction of highway deaths we're seeing in America. In 1995 (IIRC...though they'd allowed 65 on some highways since the 80s), Congress repealed the federal 55 mpg limit. Our highway speeds have dramatically increased since then.

But not faster than other nations.

 

[Xanikk999]

Raising the drinking age is a truly laughable attempt to curb drinking related fatalities and injuries with youths because they find ways to get alcohol anyway.

All a law raising the drinking age will do is put more kids in jail. It will have almost no impact on preventing kids from getting alcoholic beverages.

 

[Camikaze]

As I mentioned elsewhere drinking ages are a suggestion, rather than a hard and fast rule. They could raise the drinking age to 90 tomorrow, or re-enact prohibition all over again and it would make no difference to the lives of most people.

That depends entirely upon enforcement. If there is very lax enforcement, then yes, there will not be that much of an effect on people's lives, but the stronger the enforcement gets, the more people will drink in more dangerous circumstances, or just stop drinking. The problem is that the former seems more likely than the latter of these two effects of stricter enforcement.

Here's some choice irony. This absurd law is supposed to drastically lower the number of people killed on the highway.

U.S. Lags in Reducing Traffic Fatalities, Report Shows


Fat chance the US will listen to any other country regarding any issue.

If they really wanted to cut down on drunk driving they could raise the driving age to 21, and reduce the drinking age to 16 or 18.

I would think Karalysia is right here. It's much harder to illegally drive than it is to illegally drink, so there wouldn't be the same enforcement issues with raising the driving age, which would presumably translate to a reduction in traffic fatalities.

That's completely disregarding the principle behind not raising the driving age, though...

 

[Traitorfish]

Are the jails empty and need to be filled up?

 

[amadeus]

55 miles per gallon. Is this even possible in anything except a tiny hybrid? And what does gas have to do with highway speed?

It was a typo on VR's part -- 55 MPH, miles per hour, not gallon. Also, the highway speeds were lowered to conserve gas.

 

[Camikaze]

All a law raising the drinking age will do is put more kids in jail. It will have almost no impact on preventing kids from getting alcoholic beverages.

I seriously doubt gaol time would be a factor here, even if the drinking age was raised. Fines and other inventive punishments (such as raising the number of learner driving hours required for individuals caught using fake ID, which I think is a a reasonably novel approach) seem more likely.

 

[amadeus]

So NSW's short on cash.

 

[Camikaze]

So NSW's short on cash.

Please elaborate. I'm confused as to how raising the drinking age would result in more $$$ for the state government.

 

[Xanikk999]

Please elaborate. I'm confused as to how raising the drinking age would result in more $$$ for the state government.

More fines rolling in from previously legal age drinkers breaking the law. That is if they choose to fine them instead of jailing them.

 

[JollyRoger]

I doubt that fines cover the costs of law enforcement/prosecution though. It looks like lost tax revenue on alcohol sales though (unless they are expecting more tax revenue as sales to the 18-20 demographic increase because of the prohibition).

 

[Camikaze]

More fines rolling in from previously legal age drinkers breaking the law. That is if they choose to fine them instead of jailing them.

I doubt that fines cover the costs of law enforcement/prosecution though. It looks like lost tax revenue on alcohol sales though (unless they are expecting more tax revenue as sales to the 18-20 demographic increase because of the prohibition).

I guess fines could conceivably raise revenue. Alcohol taxes are federal, so the state doesn't lose money by reducing alcohol sales. It's technically a $5500 fine for providing an under-18 with alcohol as it is, but that fine is rarely enforced (enforcement comes more in terms of making sure liquor stores don't sell to minors), so I'm sceptical that raising the drinking age would result in more fine revenue, when they could simply enforce existing rules to achieve the same end.

Note that early 2011 is a state election, and that this has not suddenly come out of nowhere; young people and alcohol has been an 'issue' for a while now in state politics.

 

[civ_king]

55 miles per gallon. Is this even possible in anything except a tiny hybrid? And what does gas have to do with highway speed?

Please note that the g and h keys are next to each other, I'm going to assume VRWCAgent made a typographical error.

The Prius can get 55MPG FYI

 

[bhsup]

55 miles per gallon. Is this even possible in anything except a tiny hybrid? And what does gas have to do with highway speed?

Whoops, sorry! That's for catching that, Aimee. I meant 55 mph.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Oh. I should have realized it was a mistake

 

[Arwon]

I'm starting to think NSW Labor is playing an elaborate practical joke which involves achieving a 0% approval rating. For those without context, the NSW Labor government is one of the worst state governments in living memory and is facing a catastrophic wipeout in the state election in March. They're totally dysfunctional, minister after minister has left due to various scandals, and they're currently polling about 23%.

Ama: Fines aren't the issue, enforcement of drinking age is carried out by bottlos and bouncers checking IDs. The penalty for serving underage people is pretty high, but I don't think fines happen terribly often.