I am not old enough to vote, but have tried working on petitions, and sending letters and emails to my MP or other politicians about issues when I thought I had something interesting to say. I have done this several times over the last year in an attempt to make changes from within the system. None of them have ever been answered, even with form letters, so as far as I can tell my attempts at politely making changes have been futile.
Looks like a feature, not a bug. I don’t expect elected officials to be swayed by letters from random citizens, which have a lower signal-to-noise ratio than the advice of experts, academics, etc. Yes, in some cases, individual citizens will actually have insights of quality, but it may not be worth the effort to dig them up from the cranks.
It probably strongly depends of the topic, too—letters from random citizens on monetary policy or nuclear safety are probably best ignored, but it’d be normal for a mayor to respond to letters about municipal matters.
Looks like a feature, not a bug. I don’t expect elected officials to be swayed by letters from random citizens, which have a lower signal-to-noise ratio than the advice of experts, academics, etc. Yes, in some cases, individual citizens will actually have insights of quality, but it may not be worth the effort to dig them up from the cranks.
It probably strongly depends of the topic, too—letters from random citizens on monetary policy or nuclear safety are probably best ignored, but it’d be normal for a mayor to respond to letters about municipal matters.
Which is why I plan on becoming an expert in the things that actually matter to me so people will take me seriously at some point.