Underage Drinking Not the Problem

The article I chose is about underage drinking. It argues many facts in hope to convince the reader that alcohol among minors is not a problem. The problematic situation according to the article is over consumption within our society. The author argues that many Western democracies have set their drinking age to 16, or 18 giving them an advantage to become more aware and educated about alcohol. The opposing argument states that Americans frown upon the act of underage drinking and consider it unacceptable. Instead of showing the activity of drinking done responsibly, children are exposed to horrific pictures and terror stories to become “educated.” Should children be exposed to alcohol early to be more aware of their actions and the difference between right and wrong, or should they drink illegally and irresponsibly because of poor education?

The author uses overgeneralization in the first paragraph. He states “Underage drinking is not a problem. The problematic situation here is over-consumption — a result of our society’s unhealthy relationship with alcohol.” This is an extremely broad statement to start the article out with. He then makes the mistake of not backing up the facts of the sentence. He gives no reason as to why the problematic situation is over consumption and not underage drinking.

The author also uses the bandwagon approach when he states that all of society frowns upon underage drinking. This is not a true statement because he does not back it up with facts, and also everyone has a different opinion about underage drinking, not “everyone” frowns upon it. He states: “Binge drinking is a direct result of the necessity for underage drinkers to consume alcohol before they go out.” This is false analogy. The author assumes the characteristics of underage drinking and binge drinking is based on “going out,” and “exciting.” Who is he to judge how many people binge drink to go out and have fun? He doesn’t have any facts to back this up. “Why do we trust young adults to choose the future leaders of our nation before we allow them to make a choice on what they can drink with their friends?” The author uses the patriotic approach by bringing in patriotism into his argument. He brings up a good point although he only states it in the article without supporting facts as to why this is the case.

This article contains numerous logical fallacies. The author has relied more on the techniques of appeal rather than fact. I concluded after reading the article that there is a lot of overgeneralization and oversimplification. This makes it hard to persuade the audience, as well as argue your topic. His arguments are broad, not containing reasoning behind his facts. He gives no evidence of why underage drinking is a law compared to why it is not in Western countries. Who defines what is considered “appropriate education,” for underage drinking?