Onime No Kyo
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Joined: 4/28/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
quote:
ORIGINAL: Terminus
What the hell has distance got to do with what I just posted? At 16, you're still in diapers, and shouldn't be behind the wheel.
At 16 , many (I would suggest most) American kids have part time jobs, help out with errands (such as carting their younger siblings around) and in general are on their way to becoming reposible adults. I might also point out that in every state I've been in (only around 42) ANY moving viloation results in the kid having their drivers licence suspended , higher insurance rates for their parents and the hairy eyeball of the justice system focusing on them full force. We've had a tradition in the country of trying ready our children for adult hood before adulthood. This probably dates from before the 2nd World war when so many kids (more than half) came from a rural background, and drove farm machinery , pickup trucks and tractors before 21. It's difficult to give up traditions that were seen as rights because there is no longer a need. Before you laugh , consider this: in how many parts of this country and in fact the world, do children still have the summer off even though they are no longer needed for agricultural purposes. And as a matter of point , a lot of kids graduate from high school at 17 (I did).
When I 1st started visiting Europe , there were many places where there effectively was no minimum drinking age. Even in 1983 in England I was frequently told that 18 was a relatively recent requirement. And today , with 17 being the youngest one can enter the US military (With parental consent and a few additional hoops to jump through).
And about those distance. Many kids do have to drive themselves to consolidated high schools. Buses are not always available. And there's a good rule of thumb, the bigger the distance between cities , the poorer the transportation system). Even large American cities (like for instance Seattle) have extremely poor mass transit systems. At my current abode (DC Metro) I can walk out my front door to jump on the Metro. When I grew up in Maine (in pretty affluent part of the state) I had to drive 120 miles to catch a train.
But I think the biggest reason T is that by 16 our kids don't wear diapers. they usually get rid of them in their 1st year.
The real answer to your point appears to be to create a working and reliable network of public transportation of buses, commuter rail an high speed rail to get the poor dears to their jobs in peace, instead on taking mom's Taurus and doing doughnuts in the school parking lot.
That wouldnt work, of course, since unlike Euros, we, and our kids, have long a go developed this sense of entitlement which says "why should I share my personal space with a stranger on a subway when I can drive?". Which is why no one ever thought twice about creating a decent network of coast-to-coast public transportation. It would flop.
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