One or The Other

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 To be able to rent a car in the United a person generally has to be twenty-five years of age or be over twenty-one years of age and pay a “young driver”. The only notable exceptions are the states of Michigan and New York where eighteen-year-olds are able to rent a car, which stand as the only places in the United States where people of this age actually have freedom. For a lot of kids when they turn eighteen and graduate high school they are shipped away from their homes to a university in an attempt to get them grow up under the guise of “education”. Eighteen-year-olds are also able to go join the armed forces and fight in wars. They are also able to vote in elections for who the leaders of this country will be. Here are some other random things that can be done by an eighteen-year-old, buy a pet, buy fireworks, skydive, buy spray paint, adopt a child, get tattoos, file a lawsuit. While all of these things can be done, RENTING the most common type of transportation cannot be done. An eighteen-year-old could go on Facebook marketplace and buy an old beater for cheaper than the price of renting a car for a week and drive it for eight years till they could rent that same car without limitations. This helps to highlight a fallacy in the governments age restrictions that it puts into place. Society values and promotes the independence of eighteen-year-olds yet it does not allow them to truly be free as they are still restricted from doing certain things that they can already do in other capacities. Therefore, is it really independence for the teenagers, or is it secretly independence from teenagers?


Comments

  1. RahafMarch 1, 2026 at 3:48 PM

    You make a good point. Eighteen year olds can do many adult things but still can’t rent a car. That makes it seem like they are not fully independent yet. Good job!

    ReplyDelete

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