According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,“By their senior year, 72 percent of high school students have had a full drink . . . and alcohol consumption tends to increase in college” (Park). With these astonishing results, the United States is facing a difficult choice in whether or not to lower the drinking age. The drinking age became twenty-one across the United States under the Reagan Administration in 1984. The Reagan Administration linked the drinking age to the 10% of federal highway funds. By lowering the drinking age to eighteen the United States will receive several benefits such as a decrease in reckless underage drinking and an increase in the economy. Reckless underage drinking has increased since the change in the drinking age. The law in 1984 was supposed to get crackdown on underage drinking; however, this law has failed its purpose: “ under-age drinking did not disappear. In some ways, the problem got worse” (Time). By lowering the drinking age, underage drinking will decrease. This is because the students who are participating in underage drinking are students who will be allowed to drink if the United States lowered …show more content…
One specific reason is the younger population, most college students, can purchase alcohol and pay taxes on the alcohol. The additional taxes can go towards that the country needs it to go towards such as building new roads or paying back the debt of this country. Another way the economy will increase is in the music business. According to Tom Windish, president of the Windish Agency “would be positive . . . Think about it. It opens up the number of people that can attend a lot of concerts, all of the shows at 21-and-up venues. You would have a larger pool of people that could attend these events." (Waddell). This allows the music industry to market towards the younger population as they will be welcome in bars and