Hacker News Reader

This argument is so bad. We don't let 18 year olds run a nuclear sub. Sure, they're on board sometimes but important decisions are made by significantly older officers with years of training. That's like having a drink with your parents.

(I got drunk first time when I was 14 and have no strong opinion on when it should be legal to buy alcohol.)

Good point. We let them shoot and kill each other however.

Maybe. Mixing legality and morality is popular enough though. In other words: "the drinking age should be 18, but it isn't, and you should respect the law".

I suspect many would also oppose dropping the legal age for MADD inspired reasons (god I hate that organization.... bunch of neo-prohibitionists...) even though they think their kid is responsible enough.

I do agree though, most probably do think that the age could be lower.

Just to say, I graduated a year ago from a non-US school with a bar in the main building. Everybody was fine.