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This. So much brain-waste in professions that generate little to no value for society. How many highly intelligent people waste their lives as lawyers doing end

This. So much brain-waste in professions that generate little to no value for society. How many highly intelligent people waste their lives as lawyers doing endless corporate lawsuits or minority shareholder lawsuits or whatever other useless court proceedings? Society could allocate the resources spent on stuff like that to train more engineers or researchers. Or accounting, so many highly intelligent people spending years navigating endless mazes of occult tax law or useless bureaucratic nothingburgers who could otherwise be engineers or researchers. Such a waste

sxg 3y ago
How is it that society is preferentially allocating resources to creating lawyers rather than engineers or researchers? It seems to me that people chose to become lawyers, engineers, or researchers of their own free will. Sure, many researchers are government funded, so you could draw more people to that field with more resources, but I'm not seeing how society is pushing people into law over engineering at least.
- thorncorona 3y ago
  > How is it that society is preferentially allocating resources to creating lawyers rather than engineers or researchers? money.
- Teever 3y ago
  “If you believe that your thoughts originate inside your brain, do you also believe that television shows are made inside your television set?”
- MeImCounting 3y ago
  Like another commenter suggested, money. These professions are generally rather high paying and come with quite a bit of prestige. "Lawyer" is listed up there with doctor with the stereotypical aspirational jobs.
  - sxg 3y ago
    Sure, I guess I’m conflating society with government. Yeah, doctors and lawyers make more money than other professions, but those incomes are a result of innumerable positive and negative incentives (eg, cost of education, opportunity cost of education, work/life balance, “meaningfulness”). It seems nearly impossible to intentionally modify those incentives in a specific direction without causing unintended consequences elsewhere. Example: society wants more quality teachers, so society chooses to increase the federal education budget to increase teacher salaries. Consequently, more highly educated people choose to become teachers, however, this unintentionally exacerbates the doctor shortage and further increases corporate lawyer salaries due to decreased supply of lawyers.

sxg 3y ago

How is it that society is preferentially allocating resources to creating lawyers rather than engineers or researchers? It seems to me that people chose to become lawyers, engineers, or researchers of their own free will. Sure, many researchers are government funded, so you could draw more people to that field with more resources, but I'm not seeing how society is pushing people into law over engineering at least.

thorncorona 3y ago
> How is it that society is preferentially allocating resources to creating lawyers rather than engineers or researchers? money.
Teever 3y ago
“If you believe that your thoughts originate inside your brain, do you also believe that television shows are made inside your television set?”
MeImCounting 3y ago
Like another commenter suggested, money. These professions are generally rather high paying and come with quite a bit of prestige. "Lawyer" is listed up there with doctor with the stereotypical aspirational jobs.
- sxg 3y ago
  Sure, I guess I’m conflating society with government. Yeah, doctors and lawyers make more money than other professions, but those incomes are a result of innumerable positive and negative incentives (eg, cost of education, opportunity cost of education, work/life balance, “meaningfulness”). It seems nearly impossible to intentionally modify those incentives in a specific direction without causing unintended consequences elsewhere. Example: society wants more quality teachers, so society chooses to increase the federal education budget to increase teacher salaries. Consequently, more highly educated people choose to become teachers, however, this unintentionally exacerbates the doctor shortage and further increases corporate lawyer salaries due to decreased supply of lawyers.