National Minimum Drinking Age Act Essay - 719 Words

In 1984 the United States Government approved the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that required that â€Å"the States prohibit persons under 21 years of age from purchasing or publicly possessing alcoholic beverages as a condition of receiving State highway funds.† Even though this bill was nowhere near the magnitude of the prohibition act that was passed less than a century before it, the act still damaged the relationship between individuals, firms, and the United States government. Although the intentions of the government were to control alcohol consumption among citizens aged 18-21, the passing of this act affected the equilibrium already established by a consumer-producer market, created a market failure and a black market, and introduced excise taxes into the market. When the National Minimum Drinking Age Act passed, two markets were directly affected by the outcome and those markets were the producers, the alcohol industry, and the consumers, US citizens aged 18-21 years old. Leading up to 1984, there was no set minimum age for purchasing alcohol and so, with the rising concern of drunk driving fatalities, the government decided to limit the alcohol market. A demerit good is a good that is both over-produced and over-consumed, and is considered harmful to a person or a society. When the government decided that alcohol was a demerit good, and raised the minimum age, the market demand for alcohol decreased as the number of consumers decreased and the quantityShow MoreRelatedProhibition Of The National Minimum Drinking Age Act1376 Words   |  6 Pages1993, the drinking age was set at twenty one but was later lowered to eighteen because of the passage of the 26th amendment which lowered the voting age to eighteen. In order to combat drunk driving, The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed and stated that states must raise their drinking age to twenty one or lose 10% of their funds to pay for their highways. The organization MADD (Mothe r’s Against Drunk Driving) was the group who put pressure on congress to pass The National Minimum DrinkingRead MoreThe National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 Is Not Working738 Words   |  3 Pagesworking. The NMDA, National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which states that people under the age of 21 can’t consume or purchase alcohol, has only served to heighten the problem that is currently being faced. The only realistic way to make real progress while reversing the negative effect the NMDA act has had and is having is to abolish the NMDA act and introduce a new act that establishes different phases to introduce alcohol to minors. In essence, the purpose of the NMDA act was to decrease theRead MoreAlcohol And Substance Abuse And The National Minimum Drinking Age Act2083 Words   |  9 Pagesstarted to arise. One being the legal age to start drinking alcohol. The national minimum drinking age act was signed on July 17th, 1984 to the law, with the drinking age at minimum being 21 (Archer M.D.). An adult is any person who’s reached the age of maturity as directed by law (Archer M.D.). Legally, being 18 years old in the U.S. is considered to be the adult age, but the consumption of alcohol has always been withheld from the young adults of today, until the age of 21. When you’re 18 year old, youRead MoreThe National Minimum Drinking Age Act Of 19841084 Words   |  5 Pagesresponsibilities consuming alcohol at the average age of 18. However, unlike most countries in the world the United States has determined to establish their drinking age to be set at 21 years of age. This antiquated position is un just to many young American adults. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 should be revised and reconstituted to the legal age of 18. To provide a more suitable America that is secure and reasonable for all young adults. The drinking age needs to be lowered so that it can reduceRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Should Be Abolished1634 Words   |  7 PagesLegality and Liquor: A Balancing Act Laws surrounding alcohol use and consumption in the United States all stem from one major root: the Prohibition Era of the 1920s. The Prohibition Era lasted almost thirteen years and banned the production, the distribution, and the sale of alcohol. In 1933, the Prohibition Act was repealed and states designated their own legal drinking age. In 1984 the National Minimum Drinking Age act was passed and raised the drinking age in the United States to twenty-one.Read MoreThe Minimum Drinking Age Act1692 Words   |  7 Pagesthe National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act stated that all states must raise their minimum drinking age to 21. Individuals under the age of 21 would now be prohibited from purchasing or being in public possession of any alcoholic beverage. Though not every state was keen on this idea, they all jumped to raise the minimum drinking age due to the government threat that they would lose up to 10% of their federal highway funding if they ignored the request. However, since the National Minimum DrinkingRead MoreMinimum Legal Drinking Age Should Remain at the Age of 21 Essay1310 Words   |  6 PagesWithout a doubt, the United States has been facing serious national problems with underage drinking. Depending on personal ideologies, some people might not agree that the current minimum drinking age of twenty-one is based on scientific facts rather then ideology of prohibitionism. For example, since 1975 over seventeen thousand lives have been saved since the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) was changed to age twenty-one (Balkin 167). This shows that even over a short amount of time, a higherRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Act1179 Words   |  5 Pagesof the Legal Drinking Age A highly controversial topic that continues to rise is the debate of the legal drinking age and whether it should lower from twenty-one, or remain. On July 17, 1984, Ronald Reagan was in office when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed, prohibiting anyone under the age of twenty-one from publicly possessing and purchasing alcohol. After the Act was passed in 1984, the states that failed to abide by Ronald Reagan’s National Minimum Drinking Age Act were withheldRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Of The United States1479 Words   |  6 Pages The legal drinking age in the United States has been argued for many decades. The current minimal legal drinking age is twenty-one but some want to lower between eighteen and twenty. The main focus of the research conducted and opinions of people are based on the minimal legal drinking age of eighteen. The research is taken from the 1970s, when the twenty-sixth Amendment was passed in the Constitution (Wagenaar, 206). It was st ated that eighteen is the â€Å"age of majority†, so thirty-nine of theRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Should Be Lowered1732 Words   |  7 PagesThe definition of the word adult is: â€Å"a person who has attained the age of maturity as specified by law†(Dictionary.com). If this is so, then why is it that in the United States 18 year olds are legally considered adults in our society, but they can’t legally buy or consume alcohol? Yet at this age they are able to vote in an election, get married, serve on a jury, live on their own, purchase cigarettes, adopt a child, and defend our country. These are not easy tasks for one to take on, yet our government