I don’t think so, they aren’t finished growing. They probably don’t work or pay taxes, they don’t rent or own homes. They aren’t functioning members of society yet, why would they be able to make a rational/educated decision like that?
things are about to get a whole lot cooler. Laser tag skate park to be approved, it's what the city needs right now.
None of those really have anything to do with being 16 though. You can be 16 and drink just like you can be 18 in school full time still leaving in rez or at home.
Almost no one at sixteen is moving out of their parents house and getting loans and paying bills and buying groceries etc. That’s what you do at 18, after you’ve finished a basic level of education and have matured more. There’s a reason why it’s illegal for a sixteen year old to drink, cuz they’re immature, impulsive and their brain is still growing. To vote you need to have real world experiences, paying taxes and paying for your education/rent/gas/groceries.
Maybe not getting loans, but I knew plenty of 16 years that got full time jobs on the rigs and moved out of their parents house as soon as they could afford it. Plus, there are tons of people who can vote who don't have a basic high school education. Both my parents dropped out of school on grade nine. My mom was living on her own and everything by the time she was 15. If the argument is our brain is still growing, then we shouldn't be able to vote till we're at least 25.
I should say, I also don't think 16 year olds should be able to vote, it's just an interesting argument that can be made.
Dropouts are a small percent of the population of 16 year olds though. Yes there will always be uneducated immature adults, but the majority of 18 year olds are more educated, experienced and mature than the majority of 16 year olds. It’s not an individual issue.
Must be around 90% of the population that doesn't know anything about politics anyway (including me) though.
You could say the same thing about the majority of 25 year olds. Maybe 18 is still to young? Especially considering the school curriculum changes every 5-10 years, education at the age of 18 can vary by generation. 16 year olds now a days are far more educated than 18 years of the 1950s.
I moved out shortly before I turned 17 and worked full time while I was still in high school... retrospectively, I was a complete idiot. Kids that age are potentially very easy to manipulate, even at 18, I remember reading articles in the Calgary Sun and thinking reform was a cool movement. I had no idea they were against universal health care, also didn’t really know we had universal health care. After being inundated with US media, I actually thought going to doctors cost money. But now I’m pretty sure most people never develop, there are so many people voting for those idiots, without ever looking at their platforms. Their leader thinks women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, not equals, the guy who founded the reform party started the manning institute, which releases propaganda materials with an extreme right wing bias. They think pot smokers should be jailed. I had a conversation with a giant pothead who was planning on voting for them, because “they don’t look cool, but they care about me man!” They tell tall tales, reject science, and endanger our economy **** reformers.
I’d allow 16 year olds to vote since young people are typically liberal, and we don’t need another republican president.
16, 17, 18. It’s all arbitrary. What I don’t understand is that in some countries you can join the army years before you’re legally allowed to drink.
In the 90's, in Montana, you are allowed to drive when you are 16 years old. Also, I think kids nowadays are a lot more informed than kids were in decades past, so I think the voting age should be lowered to keep up with that phenomenon.
