It seems kind of unfair seeing anyone under 18 has no way to decide the future of their country. Which they have more stake on seeing whatever decision happen while they are under 18 will be there for the rest of their life.

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    6·
    13 hours ago

    It used to be different for men and women too. That’s after the women got the vote in the first place. Switzerland famously only did that in the 70s. With some women being against that. But I digress.

    For men, voting age was closely linked to legal adulthood once it wasn’t tied to land ownership or similar any more. Societies the world over have sort of agreed that 20-23 is about the age for that. With social progress since the 70s, it was lowered to 18. In the US because of Vietnam where 18yo were old enough to die senselessly in Nam but not old enough to elect the government that sent them there. That was unfair and addressed. In Europe, a lot of countries changed everything to 18 (drinking, voting, driving - don’t do it in that order though) from the 60s onwards. And some subdivision elections (local or state level) are today from 16 in the EU.

    So the question is more like why are you an adult at 18 as far as the law is concerned. That’s a compromise societies have arrived at over time and often copied from one another.

    • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      I rarely upvote comments but I feel you hit on the key concept. What is expected of the individual. If they are expected to contribute to society like with the draft then yeah they should be able to vote. You know its kinda funny to because if you look at the drafts they started at 21 a lot of times which is the drinking age so I wonder if 21 was more standardized but we started dipping to 18 on a regular basis where it was like. yeah we gotta move this over. seems like they kinda should have moved the drinking age to.

      • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
        1·
        4 hours ago

        The drinking age was 18 in some states. But then IIRC the federal government tied funding on the condition that it be raised to 21 again.

        The US has had a weird relationship with alcohol. Exhibit A: the 18th and 21st amendments.