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What do you think the voting age should be? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by hellabryanstyle@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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About two years ago now, I was sitting on a bench in Central Park writing my initial thoughts on what I didn't know then but would come to know as Youth Rights.

I don't think I'll ever remember why she did, but about halfway through the day Greta Thunberg came to mind, and I looked up the voting age in Sweden. And my blood boiled in a way I've never experienced in my entire life.

16 years old and one of the most famous and recognizable political activists in the world. 16 years old giving a confident, impassioned, admonishing speech to the fucking UN. 16 years old with no legal right to a voice in her country. No voice to vote for the policies she believed in or the people who might enact them.

My writing, already vitriolic to a fault, managed to become even moreso but with the topic abruptly switched to voting. For the first time in my life, I considered where I'd place the voting age if I could do so unilaterally. Not long into considering it I had a thought that I wrote down immediately, a question I've asked well over 100 times at this point with no substantial answer:

When is it reasonable to say to a person, 'If you're not at least this old, then I don't give a fuck what you think'?

And from the moment I had that thought, I have been unable to place the voting age.

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[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world -4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If I had to change it I'd increase it.

The average late teenager is not suitable to have a say. And half of them are below average in that sense.

I'd like to tie it to actually being a tax payer, you pay you get a say in how your hard earned money is spent. But that would throw people who can't work under the bus.

[–] Navarian@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

16 is old enough to have taxable income alongside other things in the UK.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

My teenagers work and pay taxes.