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I'm much older, but I have talked to some teenager who've gone to Britain and elsewhere as exchange students. These 16-year-olds go to the UK, and they're treated as adults; they can go out drinking, they can go to clubs, and so on. Then they come back to the US, and they're children again.
Yeah, 16-year-olds may not know how to hold their liquor, but civilization sure isn't falling in countries where it's legal for them to drink. They're drinking anyway. If you want to ensure responsibility, routinely suspend driver's licenses for a year or more for any violation involving drinking or drug use under age 20.
The other downside of high legal drinking ages is lack of access to entertainment. In my town, most of the live music is in clubs, and nearly all of the clubs are hard-liquor-serving over-21 establishments. The club owners say they can't afford the entertainment without the liquor sales. So people under 21 don't have as many entertainment options.
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