Just the opposite. The age to do everything should be lowered to 16, or even 14. I say get rid of schooling beyond the eighth grade and bring back Medieval guilds so teens can become apprentices at 12, journeymen at 16 or whatever and then be full masters by their early 20s. Not everyone needs to be infantilized into their 20s just so they can go to universities for eight years and become a lawyer.

Nice piece! Well written and obviously well researched. I NOW now what a "journeyman" is!

Personally, I believe one should reach the age of majority at 20. One is a child from 0-19, a young adult from 20-39, middle-aged from 40-59, elderley from 60-79 and freakishly old from 80-121.

Which is not to say one should not be able to drink alcohol, smoke, make love, drive a motor vehicle, vote or take out a library book before that age - all of these things need examining separately, on their own merit.

However, since 7-year apprenticeships are a thing of the long past, a nice round age at which "majority" is attained would form a worthwhile benchmark, reference point, datum - from which all other considerations could be looked at.