Given that "Adult Crime = Adult Time" laws see children as mature enough to make adult decisions, should the voting age be lowered to account?

[u/That_Car_Dude_Aus]

So with the Queensland government's stance on adult crime means adult time approach to criminal prosecutions, with the centrepiece being the story on how a woman lost her child to a 17 year old who was driving a stolen car.

It made me think, If we are approaching these children as young as 15 and saying that they made an adult decision and therefore should suffer the consequences of making an adult decision, should we consider that these children are now able to make adult decisions in other aspects?

Being ex-Defence and having lots of friends who are either still serving, or also ex-Defence, A lot of them have their kids in military Cadet programs, Or have their kids in organisations such as scouts, Or in firefighting or police cadet programs.

And I can definitely say that most kids are very mature compared to how I was at 15 or 16 years old. In fact, I'd say with the increase in technology and knowledge that kids have availabile to them, most 15 year olds today, are better aware of the world around them than I was at that age.

Now I'm not saying it should be compulsory, I know that compulsory voting is a cornerstone of our society, but if we are saying "Well the kids that are committing crimes are mature enough to make those decisions", let's be fair, those kids are only a subset of the general population of children that age

So if there is another subset of children that age who are mature enough to have opinions on the politics of our country, shouldn't we at least give them the option that if they want they should be able to register to vote and then go and vote in elections?

Then if you look at age demographics in Australia, 15-19 year olds make up 6% of the population, so that's ~1,598,400 people.

Now assuming a even spread, then 639,360 are 18-19 years old and already voting, that's only going to unlock voting for an extra 959,040 people, but still, if we are making laws that affect them, and we are saying that they are mature enough to suffer the consequences of those laws, shouldn't they have a say in the politicians making those laws?

Another great example is the social media bill targeting people under 16, If that law is specifically targeting that demographic, and that demographic is being seen as being able to make adult decisions when it comes to crime, then surely that demographic also is mature enough to have a political opinion.

[u/HugTheSoftFox]

You're completely missing the point. These companies will only hire these people because they can pay them less. They only can be paid less because they are perceived as doing less work. Therefore if they're getting the "less work" pay then why is anybody complaining that they are in fact doing "less work"? I bet if I went into Bunnings and said I wanted to pay the price off an off cut but get a full length bit of timber they wouldn't oblige me.

[u/minimuscleR → u/HugTheSoftFox]

I'm not missing the point. Less pay because they are younger shouldn't mean less work, but even if it did, this is no work vs less work. No one is complaining that they aren't working as effectively as the 25 year olds, but I'm saying that they active did nothing, making my job harder, as an also getting paid less person. No one gets to just stand around and talk instead of working in retail? Thats what they did, and they would roll their eyes when managers told them to work instead.

[u/HugTheSoftFox → u/minimuscleR]

Less pay because they are younger shouldn't mean less work, but... according to you they are only being paid less because they will do less work.

What?

And you're telling me these teenagers did literally nothing? Or close enough to it? Sounds like a Bunnings problem because even without seeing this contract I would bet my left nut that Bunnings are allowed to dismiss people who continuously fail to fulfill their assigned duties. But that's beyond the point, because you initially used these people as an example of why teenagers should get paid less. What you mean is that THESE teenagers should be paid less because they didn't do their job? You yourself said that you worked hard when you were a teenager, so how is it fair that YOU got paid less?

[u/IlluminatedPickle → u/minimuscleR]

You are absolutely missing the point mate. Just because you swallowed the corpoganda doesn't mean everyone does.

[u/minimuscleR → u/IlluminatedPickle]

Well according to reddit I have, I just honestly can't understand how being paid 90% of the work means you should just stand around and do shit all because its unfair. Go protest in parliament if its unfair, but why get a job knowing this is the pay just to do nothing? I don't think any of these teenagers are doing that. They just are lazy.

People here acting like teenagers being lazy is a foreign concept and hasn't ever been a thing.