Let us draw a line that establishes, once and for all time, at what age a person becomes an adult.
What does an adult get to do?
Enter into contracts.
Join the military.
Vote.
Drink.
Have sex.
Be free of their parent's financial situation with regards to student financial aid.
Be required to foot their own bill for health insurance.
18 works for me and coincides with that whole military age thing.
Yep, arbitrary numbers are dumb (I mean Bernie Sanders still hasn't attained mental majority yet), but 18 makes way more sense than this piecemeal approach to majority. Either you're an adult, or you aren't.
ReplyDeleteI'd prefer to set the age at whatever age is the youngest at which a "juvenile" will be remanded to adult court and out of the juvenile system if accused of crimes. If they want to threaten twelve-year-olds with adult prison, twelve-year-olds get adult privileges.
ReplyDeleteI'd much prefer there to be rites of adulthood. A battery of tests that show you're able to comprehend the duties and responsibilities of being an adult and once you've proven you have you're an adult from then on.
DeleteYou can challenge the test at any age, but if you haven't passed it by the time you're 18 your status changes from child to a form of second class citizenship. You lose the protections of childhood but don't gain the privileges of being an adult; make it worse than being a child or adult by design to discourage people from seeking this status.
For our budding criminal children, have an "as an adult" test to see if our 12 year old was acting with adult capacity so young.
This would make being an adult a matter of behavior rather than of age.
It would also NEVER fly here in the USA thanks to racism using "tests" to keep minorities from voting.
Minimum age for joining the military is 17, with parent or guardians permission. I believe that once you raise your right hand, you are considered a adult by the USG. But if you are not in the military then 18 it is.
ReplyDelete