I have birthright citizenship. However, my parents are immigrants from Japan. My dad works hard and long, and sometimes when he’s especially busy, he only comes back home at 5 A.M. in the morning. WE PAY TAXES. WE ARE AFFECTED BY TARIFFS AND INFLATION. WE ARE AFFECTED BY IMMIGRATION LAWS. Still, we don’t have the right to vote. Didn’t this whole thingy of supposedly fair “American Democracy”  start out under the slogan, “no taxation without representation”? Now, America has drifted away from that core value. Isn’t discriminating  person JUST by their birthplace DISCRIMINATION, if not at least morally wrong and against the idea of our founding fathers? Not only immigrants, but the youth needs empowerment, too. I’m only 13. Still, I WANT VOTING RIGHTS. I PAY SALES TAXES, and I HATE them because they make books that I could’ve bought with just a $5 bill unreachable by just a few cents. We’re COERCIVELY FORCED to pay taxes and follow laws that we DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A SAY IN. I personally didn’t want Donald Trump to become the president, and his policies directly affect ME AND MY FAMILY, but we didn’t have a say in the outcome. The whole idea of “the social contract” that justifies the coercive rule of the government is founded on the assumption that all stakeholders that have to follow the rules have agreed to follow the rules—or at least follow them as the result of agreeing to whatever decision-making process to create the rules(trust me, I didn’t copy off this sentence off of ChatGPT—and this proves that kids can understand difficult concepts in politics, too!). This means that without say, we shouldn’t be obliged to pay taxes. Not allowing kids to vote is age-based discrimination. Lowering the voting age to 18 or 16 isn’t enough. Age itself isn’t a qualification, some 12-year olds can make more rational decisions than recklessly placing tariffs to raise inflation and go against the Competitive Advantage Principle of David Ricardo. People should be granted fair voting rights regardless of immigrant status or age, because WE PAY TAXES, and WE CAN MAKE GOOD DECISIONS, TOO. We shouldn’t have to follow school rules that prevent us from chewing our favorite gum or follow laws that make school truancy a criminal offense until WE HAVE A SAY IN THESE LAWS. GRANT IMMIGRANTS AND YOUTH FAIR VOTING RIGHTS NOW—NO MORE AGE-BASED OR BIRTHPLACE-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA!