How Starbucks keeps the poor from getting rich

It’s in today’s Washington Post:

She just graduated summa cum laude, after three years of legal training that left her $115,000 in debt. Part of that debt, which she will take a decade to repay with interest, was run up at Starbucks, where she buys her lattes.

It’s too bad she didn’t read my essay Law school: the big lie. There’s no way a law degree from a state school (Michigan and Virgina excepted) is worth $115,000. But she could have saved a few thousand by cutting the latte habit:

[A] five-day-a-week $3 latte habit on borrowed money can cost $4,154, when repaid over 10 years.

Comments

[KipEsquire]

I was a late-to-law-school type (started at 32). All incoming students, including those like me who weren't on financial aid, were required -- by law! -- to attend an orientation lecture on fiscal responsibility. They gave us these stupid little stickers to put on things like pizza boxes and Starbucks cups, to remind us how expensive they were and that there would be loans to pay back down the road. We were literally being treated worse than kindergartners.

[reader]

Half Sigma's post about law school is on point.

Law school is another example of market failure. How it is possible for a 4-5th tier private law school to charge $25000 a year? I blame that on the various state bar organization where you MUST be graduate of ABA accredited school to sit for the bar exam. Yes, it is true that a handful of state allows non-graduate to take the exam, they make the process so difficult that you might as well attend law school.

My humble suggestion has always been to allow anyone who is willing to pay for the test to take it. Why not? If the bar exam is truly an indicator of min. competency for a lawyer, that should be a sufficient barrier to prevent bad lawyering, right?

If prospective students knows they can skip law school can still be a lawyer, I'm think it would serious change the how law school market themselves.

Lawyers love to think they are "professionals". The reality is, law is a business. Most lawyers are either salaried employees or small business owners.

[nc314]

Pay off those student loans in a year - HA - that's a laugh. Even if she does get a job making high 5 figures (an unlikely scenario given that she went to Seattle University) she'll most likely only be there 2 years before she goes insane from staring at the same 4 walls.

You nailed it in your essay on law school. So many of my friends have talked about the same things that you did in the essay.

And lets think for a minute, this lady will be part of one of the most educated people in society and she can't afford a cup of coffee? Something is upside down. And what's worse is she just takes it.

I went to law school and I expected a lot, which was never delivered. But every one of those expectations far outpaced a cup of coffee in terms of expense. I wish I had read your essay before I went to law school. I may have realized that none of my expectations would be fulfilled and some things I took for granted, like a cup of coffee, would be precious as well.

[Half Sigma]

"And lets think for a minute, this lady will be part of one of the most educated people in society and she can't afford a cup of coffee? Something is upside down."

Well said. Being educated by itself is worthless. Look at the starting salaries of college graduates. All education does, if your are lucky, is it sets you into a career track where you CAN acquire skills that are valuable in the job market.

[reader]

You mean being trained to do something by itself is worthless. Beging educated is priceless. Supposedly, education frees one of ignorance. If that woman was better educated, she would have known better.

[nc314]

Half Sigma, I think the key phrase in your response regarding education and careers is "if you're lucky." Many times I have thought that I would have been much better off, financially at least, if I had gone to community college and learned a trade. I could have saved the tuition I paid in college, law school, (and yes, LLM program)and began earning money much sooner than I did following the lawyer path.

Its true that reading, thinking and learning are important; however, there are more ways to do this besides paying outrageous amounts of tuition and subjecting yourself to the silly end of semester examination rituals. What ultimately prevails in the current education system is that many people pay no attention to education and pay all sorts of attention to grades. This is necessary for anyone planning to go on to higher education, but given what I know now, I wouldn't have been caught up in that as I once was.

No, I think if I had it to do over again, I would learn a trade at the local community college and use that to make my living. I would audit classes that I found interesting (but only at a state supported institution) and skip the examination ritual.

I am sure that I missed out on many interesting classes because they were taught by prof who gave low grades. If you're going to do the grad school thing, you must be mindful of the GPA game. I played that game and it was a loser's endeavor. I can't help but to notice that I pay plumbers $85/hour at my home and rental houses, but court appointed attorneys only earn $65/hour for their work for indigents.

It doesn't bode well for society when its most educated can't afford a cup of coffee and earn less than those who've learned a trade.

[dave s]

Hey! Whassamatta Boalt?? Hastings?? AND, if you want to practice there (but not if you want to go anywhere else), Montana?