SepTTTember 2015

Let's get September posted before the October numbers come out. Seriously, I can't motivate myself to spend a couple of minutes copying and pasting off the BLS website any more.

Since I don't post often, dragging my heels allows me to include a timely story. NY Times finally called out the legal academy in The Law School Debt Crisis. About ten years after the pioneering scambloggers noted that law schools hamstrung their graduates with crippling debt and an unusable degree while taking on no risk themselves, the Gray Lady's editorial board joined the party. Nando has a typically trenchant post here.

My overall reaction is meh; this editorial will have the same impact as calls for gun control following a shooting at an elementary school.

First of all, the Times is an elitist rag that has as much concern for law students as Hillary Clinton has for the middle class. Law schools scamming students doesn't bother the editors a whit. Plebeian Southern schools scamming students bothers them greatly. On the other side of the aisle, literally and figuratively, is a Congress that believes in privatizing gains and socializing losses.

Second, they ignore the elephant in the room, the American Bar Association. The loan programs the editors describe are available to all graduate students. While these programs have contributed to tuition far outpacing inflation, graduates of most disciplines will benefit from their degree. Law is unique in being unable to regulate itself, in knowingly accepting unqualified students, its penchant for fraud, and for operating institutions solely for the benefit of faculty, administration, and investors. I used to think turning off the loan spigot was the best way to deal with the legal academy, but it would have to be done without unnecessarily harming other disciplines. Ultimately, the best way to control the ABA is to remove its accreditation authority, but the ABA is another elitist organization that pays lip service to the non-ruling class and the Times has its back.

Finally, one more elephant in the room: the courts. We're at the point where there is no cause of action you could bring against a law school that would survive summary judgment. Law students are ipso facto sophisticated consumers, 140 LSATs and all. Rather than helping matters, the most influential media source in the country has put matriculants on notice, "You gonna get raped." Pretty funny that we've reached the point where nearly the entire country knows that attending a non-elite school is a scam yet there are still enough waterheads trooping off to school to keep the enterprise going. Except maybe at Indiana Tech.

Have a scammy day.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm

Not seasonally adjusted	September	2014	1,111,600
	July	2015	1,131,200
	August	2015	1,123,400
	September	2015	1,119,100	7,500
Seasonally adjusted	September	2014	1,117,800
	July	2015	1,121,300
	August	2015	1,120,400
	September	2015	1,125,100	7,300
Change from Aug-15 to Sep-15				4,700