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Voting compulsory for 16 and 17-year-olds in Belgium, court rules
(www.euronews.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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I’m amazed that Belgium thinks 16 and 17 is old enough to vote. Do they also allow 16 year olds to join the military?
I don't get why people use 'is allowed to get killed for our country' as a measure of whether someone is old enough to play a part in general society, think critically, or have political opinions.
My feeling is if you’re judged old enough to vote, you’re old enough to drink, and you’re old enough to join the armed services, and be tried as an adult. If you’re not adult enough to do one of these things, why are you old enough to do the other(s)?
You’re welcome to have all the political opinions you want at any age, but voting is something that should be taken with as much seriousness as the other items on that list.
And yet the US's (typical) drinking age is 21, opposed to voting at 18, and driving at 16. Driving likely because its necessary for any sort of mobility, and drinking because we've deemed that some adults are too young to drink, but are old enough to own a firearm and be recruited to the military. Its arbitrary
True. And I think all of these things should be set to the same age limit in the US.
It's because we used to draft 18 year olds to fight in the Vietnam war and they couldn't vote until 21 in many States at the time
If voting needs to be taken so seriously surely you should need a certain level of education before you can vote. For instance, only people with a humanities degree.