Blog 8

            In Give Youth a Voice Expansion, the author argues that the voting age of the United States should be lowered to age sixteen because they are at a time where they are learning about the government. This is not a good idea, because if they are still just starting to learn about the government, they may not have a strong enough education to form a true opinion about what is best for the country. Since this age group is also just beginning to be “exposed to adult-like situations,” they have not had too many yet on their own, and are therefore still learning about becoming a productive adult to society.

Although many other countries have a lower voting age, the United States has a better government than most if not all of those others. This is partially due to the fact that the voting age is higher here and the voters are more educated than those of other countries. As was mentioned in the blog, many people do not want sixteen-year-olds to be allowed to vote since they are “not focused on the actual government and what is happening.” This seems like a rather large problem if people who do not know what is going on with the government are voting, since they may not make the best decisions for the country. Another potential problem is that these younger voters may not make decisions that would benefit the country, but just themselves. Since the blog claims that 16 and 17-year-olds have “less knowledge” but the same “motivation to participate in politics” as older age groups, it seems like an easy decision not to let them vote, as they would decrease the average political knowledge of American voters.

The end of the blog claims that the voting age should be lowered to sixteen so that the younger population can live in a world that they created, but if the voting age remains at eighteen, not only will they still be able to impact the world they will live in, but they will do so by voting with more knowledge. This will actually end up creating a better world for them to live in than it would have been if they were able to vote without important political knowledge at a younger age.

Blog 7

One current United States national government issue is whether to raise taxes on the rich to reduce interest rates on student loans. This is not a good idea, since the people who have become rich have worked hard to do so for themselves and their families. People who are now wealthy were not necessarily always so. Many Americans who are well off now, started out in the middle class or even poverty before they went through the process of college and student loans themselves.

Although it sounds nice now for us students to be able to have smaller interest rates, it is unfair to the people who have already gone through the same process we are currently going through of college and student loans. Even though it may sound nice to students in the short term, it does not make sense for the long term, since we will not want to pay the increased taxes. Instead, we should use the wealthy people as a source of inspiration to continue to work hard on our education to improve our knowledge, earn a stable job, and work our way to wealth.

The tax rates on the rich should not be increased to lower interest rates on student loans, since it is not the responsibility of the wealthy to pay for the opportunity of students. It would be unfair to take their money that they earned by going through the process themselves away from them. If the rich want to donate their money, they can of course still do so without being required to pay through taxes.