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The Importance Of Lowering The Drinking Age

825 Words4 Pages

The drinking age in America is currently set to the age of twenty-one, but should it really be? Day-after-day people abuse this law and partake in underage drinking; however, these people who abuse the law are considered adults. Eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-year-old citizens are given the responsibilities of being an adult, should they not also be given the rewards of being an adult? That is why the drinking ages should be lowered from the age of twenty-one to the age of eighteen. In 1984 U.S. congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act (Wechsler and Nelson 986). This act made states either, regard the rule of a MLDA (minimum legal drinking age) of twenty-one or, forfeit ten percent for their federal funding for highways. Today, …show more content…

The current legal drinking age has reduced the number of fatalities (Jones, Pieper, and Robertson 112). Although this is true, alcohol isn’t the only factor that should be considered. The enforcement of seat belt use is also a major point in the study that often isn’t referred to. Tests have show that the number of automobile-accident deaths have decreased since the mid-1900s; consequently, the MLDA was put into force around the same time. Many argue that the increased drinking age is why these accidents have decreased; however, around the same time the usage of safety belts in cars was emphasized more during this time. That also contributed to the decrease in fatalities, not just a higher …show more content…

If we lowered the legal drinking age, then alcohol consumed by citizen eighteen years and older would increase. Thus, the alcohol purchased would increase as well, creating a larger profit for businesses all across the country. There are other benefits of having alcohol being sold to young adults. When buying alcohol, the transaction will require the payment of tax. This tax will go to the government for their choice of funding any way they want. If the alcohol tax were to increase, then these you adults would be less prone to over buying and eventually becoming intoxicated. Virginia Berridge says in his article, that the price to buy alcohol should reflect the full costs of consumption, whether that be mentally of physically (1356). This method of increasing taxation on alcohol would promote a sense of health while also highly benefiting the

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