Technically you’re right, but there’s a whole load of things where you might be concerned about brain development. Enlisting, alcohol and tobacco consumption and taking out any sort of credit including student loans, comes to mind. I think actually you’ll agree with me that those should all be restricted to 25+.
Now where things get less clear is voting. Why should people under 25 be allowed to vote if we don’t consider them adult enough to make their own decisions in a lot of other cases? You could easily make the case that someone who can’t yet decide their own future, should not be able to decide on the future of the nation.
The impact of this would be that the group of voters that has the most reason to care about the future, might lose their voice entirely. Maybe it’s not a particularly active group, but they should be heard like anyone else.
This is one reason I don’t think it’s a great idea to start raising age minimums for things far above 18 based on the brain development argument.
Technically you’re right, but there’s a whole load of things where you might be concerned about brain development. Enlisting, alcohol and tobacco consumption and taking out any sort of credit including student loans, comes to mind. I think actually you’ll agree with me that those should all be restricted to 25+.
Now where things get less clear is voting. Why should people under 25 be allowed to vote if we don’t consider them adult enough to make their own decisions in a lot of other cases? You could easily make the case that someone who can’t yet decide their own future, should not be able to decide on the future of the nation.
The impact of this would be that the group of voters that has the most reason to care about the future, might lose their voice entirely. Maybe it’s not a particularly active group, but they should be heard like anyone else.
This is one reason I don’t think it’s a great idea to start raising age minimums for things far above 18 based on the brain development argument.