Raising drinking age to 21 'unworkable'
From: AAP February 09, 2010 5:04PM
A SUGGESTION by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that the legal drinking age be raised to 21 may not be workable, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says.
Mr Rudd said last night that he would personally like to see the legal drinking age lifted to 21, after linking high rates of P-plater road deaths to alcohol consumption.
Ms Bligh said she recognised binge drinking was an increasing problem that put young people and others in harm's way and understood where Mr Rudd was coming from.
But she did not fully support the move.
"On this issue I probably fall on the side of the argument that says the horse may well have bolted," she said.
"And whether you can turn the clock back I think is a pretty difficult question.
"... I'm not sure that it's entirely workable."
She said she welcomed a discussion on the drinking age but said the issue went to what age a child became an adult.
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Eighteen-year-olds could vote to change government, get married, have children, enter into legally-binding contracts and were treated as adults by the justice system, Ms Bligh said.
"We're really asking the question about when does a young person become an adult and the answer to that has a lot of repercussions way beyond the legal drinking age," Ms Bligh said.
She said most young Australians learned how to drink responsibly very quickly, although some did not.
Ms Bligh said she expected some discussion on the topic at upcoming Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meetings as any move to change the drinking age would need to be a national one.
My comments:
I think setting a limit over a drinking age may not work in the way government wish to see. It plays around human's control on whether they can control themselves to not overconsume alcohol. It depends largely on people's responsiveness and maturity. Once people undestand that how serious the negative impacts that alcohol can bring in, they will stop or drink responsibly. So, it varies in every country because people in different country reach maturity in different age level. Anyway, consuming of alcohol really leads to many negative outcomes, so teenagers should not simply try it under curiosity. Society need to be more alert!
haha..so economics! Yaya..the social benefit is lower than private benefits. Anyhow, I would agree that taxes imposed by the government can deter the teenagers d=from over consuming alcoholic drinks as the elasticity of demand for alcohol among teenagers is elastic because the percentage of income used is much more larger...THerefore, it works in some context...(wakaka..more economic term ler..haha) Crazy tortured by MR.Yee
ReplyDeleteLysin, are you okay? If you want to put in economic terms,then if the government put a age control on when the youngster can drink alcohol,it will cause shortage of opportunity of drinking. This will lead to black market whereby the youngsters themselves drinking secretly. In consequences, the age control is not working because the youngster can still drink. Mind you, the supplier in the black market are the parents who allowed the child to drink. So, in conclusion, the age limit will not work!
ReplyDeleteWow, you both are really crazy about economics study already =.=
ReplyDeleteMr. Yee should be very happy because we are applicating what he taught us...haha^^
Anyway, I do agree with you both that age control would not work in the way that government wish to achieve.
Well. Yin Sin...the taxes that you suggested sounds reasonable...thanks you for your *economical opinion^^