"I'm saying the minimum age to get a licences is 16"

But it isn't.

The minimum age to get the job you want and the drivers license you want is 18.

If your parents wish to give you enough leash to do it, then they can approve at 16, as is their right by law. But while you may think of it as yours, it only exists at their sufferance.

Think about it. All they have to do to ensure that you cannot do squat is allow you the full exercise of your legal power without extending any of theirs.

When you try on your own you will realize just whose job it is and whose license.

It might even be seen as a partial right if only parental objection could prevent it. ( Still not much agency if all it takes to block it is another's veto. ) But its not even something you can do barring objection. Its something you cannot do unless a guardian takes an active role and signs off.

Handy hint. It helps in considering Human Rights to frequently ask the question, "What happens if the party is left alone?" Because in general the cost of minding your own business is nil.

So it tells you a lot about the lowly status of youth that the parent doesn't even need to think or have a reason to deny the youth the tools necessary to get away from them and to make an independent living. Here, emancipation isn't even worth a stray thought. And that is precisely where we end up.

No, the minimum age to go out and do those things as soon as you can on your own is 18. That's the point at which nobody can prevent you from trying.

Dante