Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 117855


> Hannah wrote :
> "One of the most telling comments in canon for me, is in OotP 
(don't  have copy on me for page number), when Hermione says it 
would be  suspicious too many people from different houses were seen 
talking to each other at dinner.  How very sad."
> 
> Del replied :
> It's the whole concept of having to eat with your own House that I
> find sad. Mealtimes should be perfect times for catching up with 
your friends from other Houses. I know teenagers tend to be very 
clanish, but the House system doesn't help them get out of that 
mentality.
> 
> I wonder how much the House system codifies the functioning of the
> rest of the WW. Are we going to discover that some jobs are 
trusted by people from such House, or that members of a same House 
keep banding together in their workplace ?

Hannah: Yes, I would think that they do.  Look at the adults in HP.  
The house their child gets sorted into seems to be a big deal.  Not 
just for Lucius Malfoy, but the Weasleys as well - Ron clearly felt 
under pressure to be sorted into Gryffindor.  Adults don't appear to 
move on from their youthful house clannishness.  And when the house 
your child enters seems to determine their character, it's not 
surprising.

Hogwarts is the only school of wizardry in the UK.  Thus the vast 
majority of adults in the WW will have been there and have the house 
mindset firmly ingrained.  Imagine graduating from Hufflepuff and 
trying to get a high flying (no pun intended) job - you'd constantly 
be fighting the 'everyone says Hufflepuffs are a load of duffers' 
image.  

In some British institutions even today there is the so called 'old 
school tie' principle, where people from posh schools favour their 
cronies rather than select people on merit, although there's a lot 
of legislation to prevent it.  You can bet your bottom dollar 
there's no such legislation in the WW!  If your boss is an ex-
Gryffindor, don't expect promotion if you graduated from Slytherin!  
If you're a Hufflepuff in a predominantly Ravenclaw workplace, 
expect to sit on your own at meals, or at least be left out of a lot 
of 'in-jokes'.  

Really, when you look at it dispassionately, the WW is a rather 
nasty place, a sort of charicature of the worst elements of real 
world society.  Riddled with despotism, prejudice of every kind,  
and with an apparently very shaky grip on human rights, fair trials, 
democracy, or freedom of speech.  It sounds like a prime candidate 
for the 'axis of evil!'
Hannah