Age of Unreasonable

Ann Onymous clued me in to a measure in Washington (state, not DC) aimed at raising the legal gambling age from 18 to 21, on the grounds that 19- and 20-year-olds lack the cognitive abilities to gamble. Ann O. points out that those same people who supposedly lack the cognitive ability to decide whether to hit with 17 showing are still allowed to join the armed services, where they are increasingly likely to have to make a split-second decision about whether to kill someone or not.

Unfortunately, the suggestion to increase the enlistment age to 21 is not likely to fly for several practical reasons. The armed forces are hard up for recruits as is, and 17-18-year-olds are concentrated in convenient mandatory schools where they are accessible and for the most part lack other commitments. My solution to this problem of varying minimum ages would be to unilaterally declare that at age 18 one has all the rights and responsibilities of an adult. People are bound to make mistakes as they transition to adulthood. Sweet Mary, some politicians are claiming "youthful indiscretion" well into middle age. Young adults might drink too much, get into debt over their heads, crack up a car or two, sleep with or even marry someone they later regret, take up smoking, or do any number of unwise things. Making stupid mistakes is simply part of growing up. We do no one any services by stringing out the process by staggering the ages at which they can legally make those mistakes.

Varying minimum ages leads to an odd mix of what young adults can and cannot do. When I visited Las Vegas at age 20, I could have legally gotten married in any of the casinos' wedding chapels, but it was a crime to go down the hall and put a penny in the penny slots. Taking the minimum ages as a measure of the maturity required for certain acts we find:

• Driving solo and aborting a pregnancy require the same level of maturity (16 for both in most states)
• Depending on the state, casual sex is equal or less cognitively taxing (age of consent is 15-18 depending on the state) than marrying without parental consent (18 nationwide)
• Buying a new car (18) takes less maturity than renting one (25)
• Renting a car is cognitively equivalent to representing a district in the US House of Representatives (both 25)
• Gambling as a day trader in the stock market (18) takes less cognitive ability than gambling at the craps table (21)