I agree that youth makes for both good, mold-able soldiers and poor, manipulative voters. If you send an 18 year-old to combat, you don't think they have skin in the game?

"We are not obligated to allow another generation to waste their teens and 20s getting drunk and high and fuck around." "I view it as a cultural problem. Some people may never be able to fit in to a more high functioning culture."

I see these as two conflicting views and I think the second is the better one. One of my "ah-ha" moments was being taught that people's personalities are different and they want different things in life. I used to wonder why some people were ok with just existing and not trying to get ahead to make a better life for themselves. In a lot of cases, they are taught this is normal by the example their parents have set. Sometimes it's just their personality that makes them this way. We don't have to reward the underachievers (we can use this class as the worker bees without remorse), but we can't condemn them for being human. We should make everyone play by the same rules even if is not the most productive way to advance society.