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Comment by Duff | Hacker News Reader

The bartender does that only until he gets busted by a police sting operation.

A good friend of mine had his nascent teaching career destroyed when he some confident-looking 20 year old chick dropped a 6 pack of Bud Light on the counter of the store he managed part-time. He didn't bother asking for ID (which he was typically pretty strict about) and was led out in cuffs.

He received a conditional dismissal after 3 years of probation, but explaining a 3+ year career gap ("So, why did you quit teaching after 6 months to fix cars?") takes you off the fast track.

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Where the hell do you live, Singapore? That law is draconian.

New York State.

In Singapore, the drinking age is 18, so he actually would've been fine.

It's standard-operating-procedure for the US, from my experience.

It's a fine and the venue faces temporary suspension of their liquor licence here in Australia. But gaol terms!? (or at least career ruining probation terms, presumably judgement is meant to factor in the impact of the decision?).

Welcome to America. We were founded by Puritans.

How much do you actually know about Puritans? Most of what I learned about them in high school came from works of fiction. It was a pretty unfair picture, in retrospect.

I think things are a bit different in the US.

Clerks do get charged in the U.S. fairly regularly, depending on the state. In many states, it's a strict-liability offense to sell alcohol to a minor, without the prosecutor having to prove intent. Usually the clerk is exempted from liability if the minor showed a fake ID (that wasn't so bad as to be obviously fake), or if the minor looked clearly over 26 or 30, or whatever the state's threshhold must-ask-for-ID age is. If it's a 20-year-old who didn't clearly look 30+, though, and you didn't ask for ID, it's a criminal offense (in some states).

In some states the clerk is required to check ID on everyone, even 70 year old guys with canes. It's ridiculous, but the intent was to remove the element of judgment entirely.

Parent said this was in New York State.

I understood JonnieCache to be highlighting how different things are in the US to most of the rest of the world.

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