For this assignment, I did researched both views on the issue. When I did research as to why lowering the drinking age would be beneficial, I wanted to really focus on how it would help everyone out. Many people had good views and opinions as to how it would benefit. When doing research on keeping the drinking age the way it was, I found that most of the research was just giving reasons to why 18 was a bad age for drinking not really why 21 was a good age. With the research I found more effective reasonings to lowering the drinking age to 18
Here is the essay I wrote for lowering the drinking age to 18.
In our American society
it is a social norm that once an individual reaches the age of 18 they are
officially an adult. This means they can
legally vote, be legally held accountable for their wrong doings, and legally
get married. Yet, there is one thing
that America has yet to make it legal for so this age of adulthood, alcohol
consumption. Alcohol has been around
since early 10,000 B.C., and has been very prevalent in American society. It’s consumed at football games, parties, and
many other social gatherings. America
decided in the early 30’s that with effects like these there should be some
type of age restriction. The beginning
age was 21 from the jump in every state in the United States. The acceptation was that each state could
make their own drinking age. Many began
to lower it to 18 in the early 70’s.
This increased sales and consumption in alcohol. Later on, former president Ronald Reagan made
the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984.
By 1989 all states had a minimal legal drinking age of 21. But why change it back? Changing the age back to 18 will make a safer
environment because adolescence is rebellious, it makes drinking safer, and the
system works in other countries.
During adolescence and early adulthood, we seem to be very rebellious
individuals. It’s the time of life when most individuals rebel mainly against
the law. We don’t like being restricted,
and when someone tries to tell us we cant do something, we usually are tempted
to do the opposite simply out of rebellion.
Drinking is one of those temptations, which is why the age should be
lowered. By lowering the drinking age,
there is no need to be rebellious, and drinking becomes less of a tempting
thing to do because you are of age and no one tells you that you cant do
it. It becomes less of a thrill to do
therefore it can in fact decrease the amount of drinking in the age group of 18
to 20 year olds. Stats show that “22% of all
students under 21 compared to 18% over 21 years of age are heavy drinkers.
Among drinkers only, 32% of under age compared to 24% of legal ager are heavy
drinkers.” (Blogger)
With the legal drinking age being 21, when the younger age does try and
drink they do it in private locations.
This is dangerous because if there is an emergency or problem its hard
to get quick help or proper help to the situation in time. Lowering the drinking age to 18 can actually
make it safer for drinkers. By lowering
it, there will be less secret because everyone can go to a safe bar or
somewhere public where they can be monitored properly. This will prevent less close situations and
hopefully fewer deaths as well. Some may
feel that lowering the drinking age will increase alcoholic fatalities because
of the statistics on it. In actuality,
it really has nothing to do with the age at all. Studies showed that the same amount of
alcoholic fatalities is still happening from the drinking age back in the early
70’s to today.
Lowering the drinking age wouldn’t just benefit socially but economically
as well. By lowering the age, there will
be more citizens who can do certain jobs such as being waiters, brewers, and
bartenders. This gives a younger crowd more job opportunities. Moving on, by allowing the 18 and over crowd to
drink it will boost alcohol sales as well as bars because they can now legally
purchase them as well as go out to social places. In the “Lowering Drinking Age
(Economic Benefits)” article by Ryan Maher it says, “The increase in alcohol
sales would also increase tax revenue and greatly reduce if not eliminate spending
on anti-alcohol campaigns.” With an increase
in tax revenue it can help raise money that can be used toward things that can
benefit the community.
Lowering the drinking age to 18 can benefit the
nation in a variety of ways. It can
actually lower the drinking age because it wont be so tempting since they can
legally drink it. It can make drinking
safer because the age group will be able to drink publically. This means they can be supervised and
monitored by police and safety patrols.
Finally it is shown by other countries that it benefits the economy very
well when the drinking age is lower. By
lowering the drinking age it will benefit the nation not only socially but
economically as well.
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