Gender race and ethnicity in relation to youth rights

One of the last groups that it is still legal to discriminate against in America is the youth. Most feel as if the youth are an acceptable group to discriminate against being that they are seen as less mature and less ready to take on the responsibilities of the adult world. While it is certainly true that as a whole, younger people aren't nor shouldn't be able to do certain things that older people are allowed to do. Oftentimes youth are heavily discriminated against to a point where it is harmful to the maturity of the "child". The youth face personal and institutional segregation and discrimination to a point that would certainly not be acceptable towards any other group in America.

The youth in this country have just about no say in electoral politics. The most obvious example is the voting age. In the United States, the legal voting age is 18. Unfortunately the youth are significantly effected by the choices the adult population makes at the polls. Not only do the youth have to deal with the leaders that adults elect, but they also have to accept the laws of the country that they had no say in, many of which are very disenfranchising. To make it worse, at the age of 14, if a young adult chooses to work, they have to pay taxes to a government that they have no say in (taxation without representation). At the age of 16, youth can be arrested and put on trial as an adult under laws which they also had no say in.