>For someone like me, who doesn't just want to help the rich get richer, working in, say, a public defender's office will probably mean being really overworked

>For someone like me, who doesn't just want to help the rich get richer, working in, say, a public defender's office will probably mean being really overworked and underpaid and not even be able to devote a reasonable amount of time to the people I was defending because of the workload. Since you knew what you didn't want to do, I feel you've made a right decision for yourself. Not being aligned with the values of the work can indeed result in burnouts, Many can compartmentalize, Many can stay absolutely agnostic to the impact of their work on the society at large and yes they can make lot of money but then again you can't put a price upon doing what you really want to do.