Legal Cartel

Nice to see a little love for Prof. Ribstein.

There's a more basic issue, why should so much of America revolve around the legal profession? Once upon a time, when a fellow woke up in the morning, his primary concern was his relationship with the priest or other variety of representative of the local deity. Getting on the bad side of that individual wasn't a good idea. Chances are he rarely had to worry about what the despot or tyrant was up to.

For us in the US, the immediate concern of almost everyone is how their activity meshes with the legal community. "If I drive too fast on the way to work, I could be stopped by the police and fined for speeding, if my car insurance has lapsed, I'll be in big trouble for that, and then, if I hit somebody, I'll be sued. " A cursory look through the now obsolete yellow pages reveals pages and pages of attorneys but few entries for ice maker repair, for instance. The priests of secular society, the lawyers, have arranged a nomiocracy, as Alexander Hamilton intended, that make and interpret the rules we live by, punishing those who break them but exacting a tariff from all for this service. An individual American has as much chance of changing this as a solitary Aztec might have had in ending human sacrifice in his own society. We need a Cortez.

Pfft. In California, you can become a lawyer by apprenticing just like Abe Lincoln did. Yet, California Law schools aren't less expensive than in other areas.

Why is it so expensive to get an MBA? Surely people can do the jobs of MBAs by acquired skill and knowledge?

In any case, I think the premise is wrong -- at many universities, a year of law school costs less than a year of

Sorry... Didn't finish my thought...

"...less than a year of undergraduate education."

Caveat: in the USA. In poor Europe law studies cost the same as all the rest.


Thank God you have so much more GDP/capita to pay for it.

Did they forget to include "cost of law school" in the PPP calculation basket.