Hacker News Reader

Comment by sverige | Hacker News Reader

And this is what's wrong with the law profession generally. It's seen as "lucrative" instead of as "a calling." No modern law school will ever create an Oliver Wendell Holmes or inspire a fictional Atticus Finch.

View on HN

I see where you're coming from, but most people work for a paycheck rather out of higher level motives (like "I was meant to be doing this"). By the same measure, all professions would be "wrong".

Some professions (lawyer, doctor, law enforcement, clergy) should have as a fundamental motive the desire to help people rather than profit, since they have by their very nature the power to help or harm others.

In US it is becoming increasingly difficult to dedicate yourself to a cause. Since no one has your back you have to fend for yourself and your family. Good affordable healthcare, education, daycare, e.t.c. is not a given and they dedicate their lives to tend to their families and service their debts. PS: I assume you are comparing with Sweden

Not true: many lawyers work entire careers in the human rights field. Many modern law schools have produced these types of lawyers. It's just not as glamorous as what people have in mind for a lawyer, and thus not as publicized.

Yes, but the debt required to do that kind of work is completely unsustainable. 150-200k debt to service on a 60k salary working in human rights. Only with family help or huge sacrifice

A small number of law schools have debt-forgiveness programs for graduates who take low-paying public-service jobs.

There is nothing wrong with doing a job for money.

I'm not saying lawyers shouldn't be paid. I'm saying that the idea of going to law school solely to make money is not optimal for the public good.

> solely to make money is not optimal for the public good.

Is there any example where the sole pursuit of money is ever optimal for the public good? Or even that individual?

Not much of the internet as we know it would exist if it weren't for the motivation of money. And not all of the internet is bad.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com