Select an issue concerning voting rights or practices and briefly tell us your thoughts about it.
As a newly registered voter and self-described activist, I could voice and debate several issues concerning voting rights and practices in the United States. From the racist systems imbedded making it harder for BIPOC to receive IDs and vote, limiting a person’s vote to the party their registered as, lack of access, and the hours of waiting in lines, but something I can speak hours on is ‘taxation without representation.’
Yes, this refers to colonial times, but it reigns true today as a population of our country can work and is required to pay taxes on each of their paychecks, but is unable to vote themselves. Though this group only accounts for approximately 5% of the US population, it seems unfair and illegal to have 5% of the population paying taxes if they are not allowed to be involved in political processes. Who is that population? They are the 14-17 year olds of our country.
In many states, youth are able to work in a ‘real’ job as young as 14. My sister started her first job at 14 and I started mine at 16, many of my peers and classmates began their first job at similar ages. One thing we all had in common was are inability to vote on federal, state, and local levels while finding ourselves puzzled over the $50 taken out of our paychecks for federal and state taxes, as well as Social Security.
As a youth advocate and as a teenager myself, I feel strongly about this inequitable issue that has two sides to it:
(1) Why should 14-17 year olds have to pay taxes in the first place? If they are not given the right to vote, fight for the country, buy their own house, legally get married, or even sign a field trip permission slip for school without their parents, then why should teenagers be paying taxes?
(2) The voting age should be lowered to give those who are paying taxes the ability to represent their opinions in elections and to accommodate for the changing world we are living in.
In a booming era of technology and an overload of information at our disposal, youth today are more educated than ever on political, social, environmental, and cultural issues in our world. Those in power could rectify this ‘voting issue’ by raising the age at which we pay taxes to 18, or by lowering the voting age at federal or state levels while raising the age at which you get taxed or can legally work to 16 years old.
‘Taxation without representation’ is an issue, admittedly not as concerning as systemic racism in our voting booths, but has the make-up to be concerning as younger generations continue to find their voice and speak up against inequities in our country and world. Whether teenagers are cognizant of these going-ons, it should be illegal for youth to be taxed when they are not entrusted with the right to vote.
