Re:You’re an Adult. Your Brain, Not So Much
by Fnoord on Thursday December 22, 2016 @01:42PM
(#13239338)
> Accountability is not an earned quality. Accountability is an appointed quality. By raising the age of adulthood you are deferring the age of accountability (in the realm of individual responsibility) to a later age when the individual is better prepared and perhaps more responsible.
Yes, if accountability must be earned we can bind the term adult to someone who finished school system, and who is working. Then we can bind, say, the license to buy alcohol to these factors. If someone loses their job, they lose the ability to buy alcohol. And not merely alcohol. I think we can much further than merely that. The problem is that once we go down the road of it being earned, we are not non-discriminatory enough for that, since we're after all human.
My point is that with your system we have people who are almost adult, almost accountable, yet they're 0% of either. Then boom 25 and suddenly they gotta cope with all that because research on the prefrontal cortex. But that is also the time until you can still change things like personality issues. I'd argue it is better to find a middle road. Give young adults trial runs to prove their responsibility, and give them positive feedback while not ignoring the negative. The role is partly given to parents, and parents are already doing this. Why should we move it all completely to 25 y.o.? Isn't the inexperience going to backfire?
> As far police and military individual responsibility is less a consideration because you are on a job with extensive training and constant supervision. Additionally, people in these job classes are held to higher legal standards and are punished more harshly for violations of the public trust.
I don't believe the chance they get caught is high enough. You say "extensive training and constant supervision" extensive training, yes, I agree; but the same is true for a driver's license. In Germany, a theory part of a drivers license is very, very difficult but the practical part is easy. In The Netherlands, it is the entire opposite.
The USA has not been held accountable for war crimes it committed in Vietnam or Iraq (this problem is not limited to the USA though). Police are getting away with racism, or harassment. Again, not only in the USA, all over the world.
If I were to need help from the police, I'd rather get an older guy than a young one. Why? He's more experienced. Only if it was computer crime would I not want someone >= 50 age because those people are generally terrible when it comes to anything IT related. There's a reason rookie and junior are called rookie and junior.
> I really think this is more a separate conversation
Yes, if accountability must be earned we can bind the term adult to someone who finished school system, and who is working. Then we can bind, say, the license to buy alcohol to these factors. If someone loses their job, they lose the ability to buy alcohol. And not merely alcohol. I think we can much further than merely that. The problem is that once we go down the road of it being earned, we are not non-discriminatory enough for that, since we're after all human.
My point is that with your system we have people who are almost adult, almost accountable, yet they're 0% of either. Then boom 25 and suddenly they gotta cope with all that because research on the prefrontal cortex. But that is also the time until you can still change things like personality issues. I'd argue it is better to find a middle road. Give young adults trial runs to prove their responsibility, and give them positive feedback while not ignoring the negative. The role is partly given to parents, and parents are already doing this. Why should we move it all completely to 25 y.o.? Isn't the inexperience going to backfire?
> As far police and military individual responsibility is less a consideration because you are on a job with extensive training and constant supervision. Additionally, people in these job classes are held to higher legal standards and are punished more harshly for violations of the public trust.
I don't believe the chance they get caught is high enough. You say "extensive training and constant supervision" extensive training, yes, I agree; but the same is true for a driver's license. In Germany, a theory part of a drivers license is very, very difficult but the practical part is easy. In The Netherlands, it is the entire opposite.
The USA has not been held accountable for war crimes it committed in Vietnam or Iraq (this problem is not limited to the USA though). Police are getting away with racism, or harassment. Again, not only in the USA, all over the world.
If I were to need help from the police, I'd rather get an older guy than a young one. Why? He's more experienced. Only if it was computer crime would I not want someone >= 50 age because those people are generally terrible when it comes to anything IT related. There's a reason rookie and junior are called rookie and junior.
> I really think this is more a separate conversation
OK, fair enough.