Van driven down Toronto sidewalk

I'm gonna need @doctorquant to break down this fucking math for me.

 

Also, there is a pretty sizable body of economics work, I believe, on how the "power couple" phenomenon is a huge factor in preventing social mobility from generation to generation. I'm not breaking any news here.

 

I'm honestly stuck on medicine as the only field where if you do the school, you're going to get a good job and be fine for life. What else is there?

 

It's not about intimidation. It's about proverbial buying power and the desire to date someone in a similar place as yourself.

So if you're a nice lady making pulling down six figures (I know I'm getting old because I use that as a reference point even though it's not *that* much money these days) and kicking ass in your prestigious job, that's not necessarily going to net you a man who is also pulling down six figures and kicking ass in his prestigious job, even though those are your peers you'd like to date someone similar to you.

The same thing goes for men who aren't fat but don't have a lot else going on for them.

 

Law if you go to the right 15-20 schools.

 

Oh yeah? I've heard there's a lawyer underclass, like journalism. Too many for the profession. But I hear you. I imagine if you graduate from Harvard Law you're gonna be fine.

 

@John and @John B. Foster nod their heads.

 

Right. Both things in your post are true. There are law schools closing down because the profession cannot sustain the number of graduates being pumped out.

 

When my brother was briefly single (serial monogamist), he used to love coming down to Northwest Indiana to hang out. He's a successful lawyer in his own right, but he doesn't work at a name firm or anything. He's a dime a dozen in Chicago. But we'd hit the bars in Northwest Indiana together, and the fact that he didn't live with my mom and dad still and play "Madden" as his primary hobby made him a hot commodity. I saw with my own two eyes women demand to see his business card because they absolutely did not believe he practiced law and had his own place. It was like meeting an alien.

 

When I was looking at second careers, basically every single person who went to law school told me to stay the hell away, that the job market is hell if you aren't good enough to be elite, and if you're good enough to be elite you could do something besides lawyering and make just as much money with less stress and time commitment.

Software engineering is pretty much a guaranteed job right now, and a decent job at that, even if you're bottom-of-the-barrel. But I don't know how long that will last.

 

This is pretty much true. I eventually traded in the "elite" job for a job where I'm making half the money, but commute five minutes and get to teach my kid how to hit a baseball every night. No one emails me after 5 p.m. and eight people don't revise my briefs. There were a lot of times at the big firm where I regretted going to law school for the reasons you mention. But now I'm glad I did. Most people aren't willing to take the step down in prestige and money, though. It's not how the people in that world are wired.

 

He idealized women who might knock $1 off his wings because he tipped well?