About lawyers

I have a few things to say about lawyers. First. they are intelligent. You don't get into law school, let alone get the degree, without smarts. However, think about all the smart kids in their last years of undergraduate work. Some will become academics or scholars of some sort, some will become teachers, others will become engineers or work on computers or architects or doctors. Then some will go to law school. Why do they go to law school? Being a lawyer is a prestige although not very well liked profession, and it is extremely remunerative. If you are even reasonably good at it you can make hundreds of thousands, and lots of them make millions. Also, since the legal system is designed and enacted by politicians who are mostly lawyers, the system is tilted in your favor in all sorts of little ways. Now, then, the other professions also usually make good money (except scholars and teachers -- the two society needs most). They all contribute to society except lawyers, and generally those who enter the other fields have altruistic and idealistic reasons. The only reason a young person enters law school is with the aim of making money. I suppose there are a few exceptions, but I never met one. The US is particularly infested. Most countries still prohibit legal advertising and ambulance chasing, and under Code Napoleon there are no juries easy to fool and confuse, and the lawyer has a greatly diminished role even in criminal cases and particularly in civil cases. In America, as we have seen, if you have enough money and can get really good lawyers, it is not that hard to get away with murder.  That is the main reason things like health care, education, municipal governance, and even law enforcement are so much more expensive in the States, with only average and sometimes below average outcomes.