Idiot Republican wants to raise Minnesota drinking age

[angus]

Idiot democrats did it in my generation.  Luckily for me the 19 and 20 year olds were grandfathered in went it went up to 21.

I still think we have the drinking age and the driving/voting ages totally backwards.  Drunk kids would cause fewer problems if you didn't put keys and voting registration cards in their hands.

[angus]

why not 18?  or 16?  I really don't think the studies are conclusive, and the 19 number is just as arbitrary.  I'd be into lowering it all the way down as low as anyone wants to lower it.  The problem with "drinking and driving" is not the "drinking" part, it's the "driving" part.  Make that age about 25.  You already have to be 25 to rent a car at most national companies, and to run for congress.  Clearly we recognize that there's a mean measure of maturity, and that this mean is somewhere around 25.  (I'm not sure what the standard deviation is, but it shouldn't matter because we have to only have one rule.)  Drunk drivers and careless drivers kill people, no doubt about it.  So you fix the problem not by taking away the booze, but by taking away the carkeys.

[angus]

Raising the driving age just means you'll have a lot more inexperienced 25 year olds driving around instead of instead of inexpreienced 18 year olds.

well, I'm open to alternative analyses, and yours is thoughtful.  However, I remember my own 16-25 years.  I can't count the number of times I went out, pissed drunk, could even see straight, to drive home.  Now, you have to admit, an adult is less likely to attempt to drive home drunk than a 16-year-old.  I know that's the case for me.  Yeah, some of the problem is inexperience, but some of it must also be general lack of social maturity.  (actually, given the relative frequency with which I'd drive either drunk on alcohol, or high on any number of chemicals, and given the number of times I've been pulled over by the cops while flying high or drunk, I'm lucky to be alive and lucky to have only once been charged with DWI.)

Also, yes, if we're not going to commit ourselves to the massive costs of public transit infrastructure, then we need some consideration for private transit.  Given that you're a truer rightist than I, I'll assume you're not open to the idea of increased public transit in areas wherein the economic feasibility is questionable.  Given that situation, sure, we need to allow children to drive. 

But you have to admit that raising the drinking age is not a viable solution to the drunk driving problem.  Raising the driving age would at least ameliorate (but, you're right, probably not alleviate) that problem.