Here is a fascinating development out of the higher education news wire: about 100 higher education institutions are asking congress to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. The cynic in me thinks that college presidents must have gotten tired of binge drinking scandals and think this is a solution: Just push the youthful sneaking of booze earlier in the life cycle of humans, so that by the time they get to college, they'll have gotten it out of their system.
This might actually turn out well: With the drinking age at 18, parents may be more apt to intervene in any underage binge drinking since most young people will be living at home during their pre-drinking age high school years. And I am generally in favor of increased personal freedom, so this notion has strong appeal for me.
The cynic in me wonders about the role of big business in this - won't they have significantly more to gain by opening up the consumer market to the 18-21 crowd? I think not, since that group is already consuming alcohol to a degree that apparently warrants college and university intervention.
As for whether we should be consuming alcohol at all, I'll leave that for another post.
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