why do we have such an old political system?

Question

we have a system that is selfserving how do we improve on it

Answer 1

Even though our system is not "old" compared to others in the world, I do understand your sentiment. Both capitalism and democracy work on a selfserving principle, where everyone works for their own benefit, yet according to rules that (theoretically) lead to just results. And in certain senses our system is old, since the world has changed so radically in the last 200 years. The technological changes foreseen to occur within the next 75 years or so WILL dictate a change in political system. The main flaw currently is that even though we have the ability to spread our wealth to give everyone a decent life, the wealth remains concentrated. Furthermore, much of our capitalistic effort is directed towards things that are meaningless. Think of, for example, the soda industry. Coca Cola makes and spends millions, perhaps billions, of dollars on advertising and selling a product that is.... worthless. Soda is something that humans have lived without until the last 100 years, has no nutritional value, and is mildly enjoyable. Think of how much more valuable if the whole CocaCola company and its billions of dollars was devoted to cancer research. But that is a flaw of our society, our freedom is abused by letting companies prey on our weaknesses instead of improving our lifestyles.

Answer 2

Its been working perfectly fine for so long that it doesn't need to be fixed, but there has been some problems that have arisen over the years. Here are a few.

The amendment process hasn't been great though. The Income tax amendment has been proven to not have been completily ratified. Also I think the 14th amendment is in questioned if it was ratified properly or not. There was also an amendment that the states constitution had for the Federal Constitution, but there is question if it was ever passed or not. Here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_missing_thirteenth_amendment

Also one important problem with the setup of today is there is no state representation. The seventeenth amendment messed this up. It was originally the state legislatures that picked the senators, not the people. This allows for state representation and a smaller federal government.

Answer 3

You are correct and incorrect. A version of our political system was tried in the Roman Empire. It failed after a long time. We have been trying our version for a relatively short time. It does need fixing, but getting it fixed without making things worse, much worse, first is very difficult. First, we have to get rid of the politics behind the politics. By that I mean get rid of corruption in government. Next we have to respect one another. Just look at the way Democrats and Republicans interact. There is no respect. There should be. Need I go on?

Answer 4

Stop being a monarchy and get rid of the stupid queen for Gods sake. It's not the middle ages any more! Be like America and get a president and vote and be a democracy. Even the middle east has a better political system than the UK.

Answer 5

The system is only broken because of voter apathy. To maintain as strong, responesive, vibrant democracy requires the attention to issues by citizens. If not you may wake up one day and your freedoms will be lost. Sometimes it seems as if this is already happening.

Answer 6

An old political system?!??!?

At just over 230 years... we have probably the youngest political system.

What exactly needs to be improved?

Answer 7

Some things like the BIBLE and the US Constitution just work regardless of age.

Now if people would just abide by them more...

Answer 8

Because it has lasted longer than any other system.

Answer 9

Because it still works if it is not broken don't try to fix it.

Answer 10

Try a communist country and then come back and ask again.