Blog Post 6: Compairing Two Articles

The topic I choose to write about was lowering the drinking age. I myself do not think we should lower the drinking age, but this is not something I am over zealous about and am open to views on either side.

The first article is for lowering the drinking age to eighteen and starts out by stating that the current drinking age is counter productive. The United States has the strictest drinking laws and regulations compared to other countries but yet still has the most drinking related problems. This is because youth will always drink, even if it's illegal, they will just go to undesirable locations without parental supervision. In other countries do not even have drinking ages or if they do their drinking ages are considerably lower, around 16 years of age. In these societies, such as France where the drinking age is 16, they have considerable less drinking related problems. That is because by being introduced to alcohol at a younger age with parental supervision they learn how to drink in moderation and control themselves. In contrast to America where kids will binge drink every chance they get because of the difficulty involve with acquiring alcohol.

The second article is against lower the drinking age to eighteen. The biggest argument here is that it will greatly increase drunk driving, because at that age kids, in the governments eyes, become adults and are allowed to make there own decisions. For the most part 18-years-olds do not always make the best decisions including drunk driving.

I would have to say that after reading both articles my view on lowering the drinking age has changed. However, I don't think the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen, instead I think it should be lowered to 16. I agree with the article in not lowering the age to eighteen because 18-year-olds do not make the smartest decisions especially when introduced to something new. At the age of 16 however they would still be kids so parents would be able to give them supervision and make sure they do not do anything stupid, like drunk driving.