3 ms·
"Every year, our phones get smarter, our cars safer, and our medical treatments more advanced. We all benefit from startups and established companies competing
by jdp23 16y ago
"Every year, our phones get smarter, our cars safer, and our medical treatments more advanced. We all benefit from startups and established companies competing through constant innovation. So why is it that in one of the most advanced countries in the world, we’re still using the legal technology … of 1787?"
Oh that pesky constitution, getting in the way of startups ...
- iwwr 16y agoThe modern world is using largely the legal technology that came out of the French Revolution, a combination of: nationalism, democracy (on the surface) and oligarchy (below the surface). Regarding the American Revolution, it is interesting to note that tax rates immediately after were higher than during British rule. Even George Washington part-took in the centralization of the American state afterwards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion . (The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the willingness and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws.) Of course, the idea of a centralized state (with imperial ambitions if it has enough power) is thousands of years old.