Boy, is this ever the truth. With all of the lawyers running the country now, America seems to be living in comic book world.
Just a few general observations: 1. We don't elect the U.S. President democratically, so in Federal executive branch elections your vote is not as important as you may think. 2. Everyone, more or less, has "skin in the game". Though the poor don't pay income tax, they often pay a higher percentage of whatever money they have in taxes than do the wealthy. 3. The poor and lower middle class die disproportionately in the endless U.S. wars, but the wealthy profit disproportionately from these same wars. I thought lowering the vote to 18 was a terrible idea, among several terrible mistakes during Reagan's reign. What should have been done was to raise both the voting age and the age for "serving" in a combat zone as cannon fodder to 25.
And keep the drinking age (at least for beer) at 18. Louisiana held on to that as long as it could...
It is a compromised good attempt to address some of the problems that led to the financial crises. "Many causes for the financial crisis have been suggested, with varying weight assigned by experts.[11] The United States Senate issued the LevinâCoburn Report, which found "that the crisis was not a natural disaster, but the result of high risk, complex financial products; undisclosed conflicts of interest; and the failure of regulators, the credit rating agencies, and the market itself to rein in the excesses of Wall Street."[12] Critics argued that credit rating agencies and investors failed to accurately price the risk involved with mortgage-related financial products, and that governments did not adjust their regulatory practices to address 21st-century financial markets.[13] The 1999 repeal of the GlassâSteagall Act of 1933 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and depository banks.[14] In response to the financial crisis, both market-based and regulatory solutions have been implemented or are under consideration.[15]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-2000s_financial_crisis
Indeed. Lower it to 18 or get rid of it all together.. We will have irresponsible drinking regardless. I don't see any more irresponsible drinking in Europe, perhaps less even, than in the U.S. There are much better ways than legislation to get people to behave. We have way too many ineffective laws of the wrong kind in the U.S. at a cost far out of proportion to the benefit obtained.