Why Europeans Let Minors Drink but Americans are MADD.

They said to tell Michael, please give the pyts some love, that's the 40th president of the US, Ronald Reagan, and pop superstar, Michael Jackson, but it's not like Michael Jackson , at least not yet, don't treat me like a criminal because I'm innocent. It was 1984 when Michael was at the peak of his career, but Michael wouldn't meet with Reagan just because he was a global superstar. No, this seemingly chance meeting is part of a timeline of how America's

drink

ing age was raised across the board to 21, creating not only a pseudo ban on partying for college students across the country, but which widens the gap in cultural attitudes about alcohol consumption from the US to Europe, where countries like Germany allow children as young as 14 to enjoy a beer or glass of wine, and you know, since In fact , we are finishing the October Festival season right now.

I feel the topic is quite timely: why is the national

drink

ing age so much higher in the United States than in Europe? Because it didn't always use to be that way and at the end of the day, that higher national drinking age really does make a difference when it comes to responsible drinking and I think the answer to this question is going to surprise a lot of you, so yeah, Let's go ahead and dig in, so Go ahead and start with a seemingly simple question: which country in Europe has the lowest drinking age? Well, it's actually a trick question because several European countries do not have formal laws on the age at which people are allowed to consume alcoholic beverages and In Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Portugal, the minimum age requirement for consumption of Alcohol only applies to public spaces such as bars or restaurants or, for example, the October Festival.

In fact, 11 member states do not impose any age requirements for alcohol consumption in their countries. Legal frameworks, so rather than setting limits on who can consume drinks, many of these countries simply limit the age at which they can be purchased. The minimum age to purchase alcohol in Cypress and Malta is 17 years old, in Luxembourg it is 16 years old and in Austria to purchase alcohol. It is regulated at the national level, there are two different age requirements, 16 or 18, depending on the region and the percentage of alcohol involved and for example in the country where I currently live in Germany, this age requirement becomes even more complicated, we have something It is called the youth protection law and it mainly differentiates between children up to 14 years old and adolescents between 14 and 18 years old who are considered

minors

and adults of course who are 18 years old and older.

Children under 14 years of age are not permitted to purchase or drink alcohol. Adolescents 14 or 15 years of age may drink beer, wine or sparkling wine, but only in the presence and with the permission of their parents or another person with custodial duties. Other heavy alcoholic beverages are strictly not permitted. Teenagers 16 years and older are not allowed. Actually, they are allowed to buy and drink beer, wine or sparkling wine also in the absence of their parents, but again, they are also not allowed other heavy alcoholic beverages, so yes, it gets complicated, but generally speaking, the guidance of parents is the default option, but not that. necessarily means that countries have no other ways to not simultaneously discourage alcohol consumption, for example the Scandinavian countries which, with the exception of Denmark, have government-run liquor stores to further control the supply, not to mention the fact that alcohol can actually be extremely expensive in these countries which of course acts as a deterrent and I can speak to this from personal experience because Jonathan and I got married in Iceland and spent our honeymoon there and one of the peculiarities Curious thing about Iceland is that even locals usually buy alcohol at the duty-free shop at Rikic airport because, otherwise, more than 80% of the price of a bottle of vodka is just taxes.

Yes, it's one of the main reasons why Iceland has one of the lowest alcohol levels overall. consumption across the European Union and needless to say it was another reason we racked up quite a sizable barab during our time there, but cultural attitudes around the drink are not just limited to the age at which it can be purchased and consume, Europeans. It also has a much more relaxed attitude about where you can drink. In many European countries, enjoying a beer or glass of wine in public is allowed, but with some additional restrictions, either depending on the location or the type of container.

They're drinking, I've said it before. Europe is not a monolith, but interestingly, due to things like globalization, the drinking habits of those living in the respective member countries have become more similar over time to where we used to be. able to describe countries in Europe as having wet or dry cultures, research has actually shown for some time now that those cultural distinctions are becoming less and less meaningful, so yes, taking all of this together, Europe not only has a more relaxed attitude. in general when it comes to drinking, but generally there is a much lower legal age limit to be able to consume it, which compared to America's 21 is actually one of the highest in the world, so I think it's well that for the In the next section, we actually take a look at how exactly America became an outlier: freedom must come with responsibility, some of our citizens have been acting irresponsibly even though age Minimum is 21 years old.

Across the country, the legal drinking age is actually set by the 50 individual states that everyone currently agrees on, but in reality it wasn't always that way, in fact the United States used to look a lot like Europe since 1975 and the legal drinking age Drinking in the United States was a hodgepodge of standards, some were 18, others 19. Delaware stood out with a minimum age of 20 and some were 21 or older, but many often had permits for lower-carbon beverages. alcohol and things like beer and wine, so how do we get there? from this to this well, it's actually a pretty fascinating story of contradictions, a curious story of how a famously small government is better than a president who heavily armed the states by essentially blackmailing them with federal tax dollars and how ultimately Michael Jackson ended up shaking Reagan's hand while dressed. like the club leader of the White House marching band and that's why kids like me from the '80s and '90s grew up with strong memories of public school assemblies where we were not only told not to drink, Graphic images of drunk driving victims Don't get me wrong, I'm sure America's relationship with alcohol goes back much further than the 1970s and 1980s and, frankly, is probably linked first of all to the very foundation of our nation, in fact, political. and social movements calling for abstinence from alcohol consumption date back to the colonial era, but it was in the late 19th century that the temperance cause gained national prominence, ultimately culminating in the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, although it was finally repealed with the 21st amendment in 1933 in the late 1960s, however, the vast majority of US states had set a minimum alcohol consumption for those over 21 years of age.

We are certifying the 26th amendment to the United States Constitution, but fast forward to the 70s and the 26th amendment. It actually changed that dynamic again, you see that 18 year olds now had many of the responsibilities and risks of older Americans. , they could now vote and be drafted into the Vietnam War, so many states thought it was only fair that they should be drafted too. They are allowed to drink legally, but that didn't last long. The lives of more than 100 young people per month will be saved. Proponents of drinking age reform quickly cited that states with lower drinking ages were correlated with increases in alcohol-related deaths and also argued that Young adults crossing state lines to purchase alcohol in States with a lower age limit also increased drunk driving cases in the mid-1980s.

More and more states were slowly raising the drinking age due in part to an awareness campaign that trimmed the At the beginning of This video, Michael Jackson was honored for allowing his music to be used in public service announcements against drunk driving. You're almost dead, but the tactics used by Reagan were not just limited to flashy public relations with global superstars and the next part is actually very important because you love him or hate him Reagan is known for his strong Republican value that small government government is better government is not the solution to our problem government is the problem and that position makes what I do next quite curious, so I want you to do it.

I know I've decided to support legislation to withhold 5% of a state's highway funds if it doesn't enact a minimum drinking age of 21, but wait a second, didn't Reagan say this? It doesn't depend on a big and The overwhelming government in Washington tells the states what to do, yes, but it also went on with this and you're partly right, but the thing is, this problem is much more than a state problem, so wait What the hell does this have to do with it? with highway funding exactly is a national tragedy involving traffic across state lines. Well, the International Highway Act of 1956 created a network of highways largely funded by federal dollars that connected every major city in the United States, as you can imagine, its creation radically changed the American state. landscape both physically and economically, but they also became a mechanism by which the federal government could influence the states to do what they wanted in a way that Reagan could effectively arm the states by blackmailing them with reduced funds on which his state economies to push through their agenda and so it's not all that surprising that the law was passed and while it didn't directly raise the legal drinking age limit, it effectively did, but look at that woman standing next to it of Reagan, well, President Reagan's strategy was influenced in part by an organization that you You're probably pretty familiar with this if you were a millennial American kid like me.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving or Mad is a non-profit organization that was founded with two main goals: to strengthen penalties for those caught driving while intoxicated and to increase the legal age limit for To curb drunk driving, The organization was founded on September 5, 1980 by Candice or Candy Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter Carrie was killed by a drunk driver. Yes, the same woman from the signing ceremony when her daughter lost her life. Drunk driving was a crime, but it was not considered a serious crime, yes, things were very different just 40 years ago and the awareness and advocacy your organization has generated around drunk driving is commendable , to say the least, was and still is a pretty big influence on the American public. school education decades have passed and I can still imagine the school assemblies that were held in my elementary, middle and high school, often with quite graphic depictions that would practically scare you into abstinence and that word abstinence is actually very important because I think If you really want to understand American culture, abstinence has always been kind of a cornerstone of our approach when dealing with anything that society considers morally questionable but also illegal, right, we tend to take the approach of just saying no instead of equip young adults with responsibility and knowledge on how to navigate these things in a yes responsible way with some level of protection and when it comes to alcohol you can see this in their motto: no alcohol, no drugs, no victims and listen , I'm not here today to debate that particular position, but I bring it up because I think it's extremely important if you really want to understand the fundamental cultural attitudes around drinking when it comes to the United States and Europe because there's a pretty strong difference there. where one preaches abstinence to the young. adults and the other is trying to encourage some level of responsible protection and I think what I ultimately wanted to understand was not just the cultural difference but what does this ultimately mean when it comes to drinking responsibly even later in life and that question was fascinating ah thank you I needed that I am 11 years old one of theMost common arguments against the legal drinking age limit in the United States is that Europe has a supposedly safer drinking culture despite its lower drinking ages, but is there really a prevailing stereotype and is it strong enough that it certainly It's perpetuated by Hollywood, since American kids aren't allowed to drink when in party situations, like college frat parties, they often binge drink excessively, we're going crazy, no, no, no , no personal experience there, anyway, but this seems like it.

Probably a myth, according to international data from the World Health Organization, European teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 tend to report higher levels of binge drinking than American teenagers and this was also supported by a study by a alcohol policy expert at John Hopkins University who studied survey data and found that 15- and 16-year-old Americans are actually less likely to report drinking and getting drunk in the past month than their counterparts in most European countries , but interestingly, this is actually a trend that continues into adulthood and also overall alcohol consumption. Consumption per person is much higher in most of Europe.

Drinkers in several European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland—yes, even Iceland, too—are more likely to report binge drinking than their American counterparts, but there will be some different motivations behind it. This binge drinking, for example, one study suggests binge drinking in Icelanders might actually be a product of high alcohol prices. Icelandic partiers are more likely to drink at home or before the game to get their buzz. cheaper before hitting the bars where you'll only enjoy a drink or two, and understanding these seemingly small nuances is actually incredibly important if you want to understand what's really going on behind the data, particularly when it comes to things like driving in drunkenness and any type of international comparison;

For example, you might read a spicy headline that says something like: Americans are more than three times more likely to die from drunk driving than Germans, and yes, at first glance, that would be true, the percentage of deaths in The road in the United States caused by alcohol was considerable: 31% in 2019 compared to only 9% in Germany, it would certainly give the idea that Americans are reckless drivers, but you would also be missing a lot of context to begin with. here. Germany has a much stronger public transportation network. In most localities, it is not necessary to have a car to get home safely from pubs, even in smaller rural areas.

In the town we moved to we still have buses and trains that leave every 30 minutes during the night from Fryberg to get you home safely and yes the US has Uber but try calling one of those anywhere small to medium sized rural town of Podunk and eh. Yes, you will fall short most of the time and in Germany remember that the country where you can buy and drink beer at 166 has a legal driving age of 18, meaning you have two full years to learn. your drinking limits before being considered responsible enough to drive a vehicle, and that's not even counting the fact that getting a driving license is much harder to get in Germany, meaning not many young people have one. and two ifs.

If you have one, you're probably not going to run the risk of losing it, so this whole important question is whether Europeans really manage their alcohol consumption better or simply have greater safety nets to prevent people from driving in drunkenness and perhaps harsher sanctions to reprimand those who break the rules, yes, probably because the other factor missing from many of these analyzes is that the way we quantify drunkenness is not even the same in all countries For example, the global average level of BAC or blood alcohol content is 06 in Europe. The average is lower, 0.05, but in contrast, the United States stands at 0.008, which is 60% above the European limit and, in fact, these data can be interpreted in two very different ways: on the one hand , the fact that the DUI limit is much higher in the United States could potentially skew the numbers toward Europe because, for example, if you get behind the wheel with a blood alcohol content level of 007 in Germany, that would be considered illegal and you would be contributing to the DUI statistics, but in the United States it is completely legal and if you were pulled over and tested, you wouldn't actually be breaking any laws, but on the other hand, you could also interpret that the data They mean exactly the opposite.

You could also interpret this data to mean that by having a stricter definition. of impaired drivers are less likely to take the risk of getting behind the wheel in the first place, reducing overall DUI rates, which yes, studies support this, yes, it's complicated and all of these studies are relative and many times the same question asked in the first place will give you wildly different results when you try to fully understand which countries are more responsible than others when it comes to alcohol consumption and let me give you one last example in 2021, the Global Drinking Survey.

Drugs reported that among the 22 countries examined Australia, Denmark, Finland, and the United States, in that order, reported the most frequent incidence per year of getting drunk; However, change that question from how often are you drunk to simply how often do you drink and the results you get are wildly different in this regard. category France took first place with 132 days of alcohol consumption per year or about three drinks per week, followed by New Zealand with 120 days and the Netherlands with 112 days on average. Respondents in the United States drink only 83 days a year, about twice a year. week and this was actually slightly below the global average of 101 drinks per year and listen, this is just my opinion, but I would bet that our perception of one culture being more or less responsible than the other when it comes to drinking is probably very biased. for example, if you're a European person watching this video, when are you most likely to see an American drinking well, probably when they're on vacation, which is when everyone tends to partake in libations a little more than usual, or such time?

You see it happening on TV, but I think we can all agree that Hollywood isn't exactly accurate all the time, but the same goes the other way around. I think Americans probably see Europeans drinking more often in that kind of vacation environment. and that maybe tends to skew our perceptions of who drinks more and who is more responsible with it, but that actually brings me to the final question of this video, which is that I think we have a really interesting international audience for these videos that are playing recently and I would love to hear from you what your perceptions are of not only other countries' drinking habits, but also your own, how you think your country ranks overall, whether in frequency with the one you drink or your responsibility and, ultimately, how you feel about it. where we should set the legal drinking age and strike that balance between consumption and responsible behavior, you know, agreeing because I think we have a lot of tools to raise or lower the driving age, raise or lower the drinking age. , raising or lowering the legal age limiting the blood alcohol content that is allowed to get behind the wheel or even just taxing alcohol and again trying to achieve this balance is something that all countries are grappling with.

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to approach it, but I'd love to hear from you in the comments below so let me know and yes, as always, I look forward to hearing from you and if you enjoyed what you saw today, be sure to hit the approve button, it means a lot and for more content. Ashton guy hits the subscribe button so I'll see you next Sunday Che this