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Voting from birth?
This morning on the BBC, there was an interview with a group in Germany that are campaigning to lower the voting age to -- well, birth, basically. The idea would be to allow kids to vote as soon as they felt themselves competent. Looking around on the Web, I find that the idea has been around for a few years.
My initial reaction was that this was amusing, but rather goofy -- that it's entirely ridiculous on its face. And yet, there is a part of me that rages against the growing infantilization of how modern society treats kids (and, indeed, adults), and a feeling that we do ourselves a damage by not teaching them real responsibility at a young age. The right to vote is the most serious responsibility we give to our citizens: important, and not trivial to do well. Humans learn best by doing, and I do wonder if the best way to teach people that voting is important, and should be taken seriously, is to let them actually *do* it from youth.
So I find myself of curiously mixed minds here. Part of me thinks the idea is fairly preposterous, and would dumb government down. Another part of me thinks that it could, instead, smarten our citizens up. Really, I suspect that a mix of the two would be true. Opinions?
My initial reaction was that this was amusing, but rather goofy -- that it's entirely ridiculous on its face. And yet, there is a part of me that rages against the growing infantilization of how modern society treats kids (and, indeed, adults), and a feeling that we do ourselves a damage by not teaching them real responsibility at a young age. The right to vote is the most serious responsibility we give to our citizens: important, and not trivial to do well. Humans learn best by doing, and I do wonder if the best way to teach people that voting is important, and should be taken seriously, is to let them actually *do* it from youth.
So I find myself of curiously mixed minds here. Part of me thinks the idea is fairly preposterous, and would dumb government down. Another part of me thinks that it could, instead, smarten our citizens up. Really, I suspect that a mix of the two would be true. Opinions?
no subject
The question is, is this self-defeating? Most people do *not* really understand the concepts of buying and selling especially well. Is that because of fundamental inability, or is it because we didn't demand the skill of them at an appropriate age?
Mind, I'm not agreeing with the original proponents of this idea, who would have three-year-olds voting. But a 15-year-old? I'm of *very* mixed minds here, and I think it's overly simplistic to say that they simply aren't capable of it.
One thing I've observed in the SCA (not having kids, but watching a bunch from birth through college) is that the best way to get a kid to grow up to be a responsible adult is to give them appropriate responsibility early. Not excessively early -- but generally a lot earlier than modern society tends to do. Not only do most succeed, but they tend to take those responsibilities much more seriously than the average person who isn't granted them until adulthood...
no subject
Agreed. But what constitutes appropriate responsibility in this case? There are duties to being a voting member of our society that I am not willing to require of youngsters - paying taxes is a major one.
I think that changing the voting age would also adjust the age for juvenile crime, another knotty issue.
Here is another question for you... what rights should legal minors have and what should be reserved for legal adults?
no subject
Woah. Which country are you writing from? Here in the US, kids pay taxes just like adults. Their income is non-exempt, they pay sales tax at cash registers, and if, somehow, they come to own real estate or cars, they pay real estate and excise taxes.
no subject