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It boggles my mind that lawyers make so much money.
by softbuilder 18y ago
It boggles my mind that lawyers make so much money.
- lsb 18y agoCOBOL programmers make lots of money to deal with legacy systems, and those are 40 years old, and completely specified! Imagine if you had to analyze specifications written in a notoriously imprecise language, every variable is global (remember "that depends on what the definition of 'is' is"?), and new definitions and analogies are coming in every day.
- softbuilder 18y agoI'm definitely switching to COBOL.
- Evgeny 18y agoSounds like I have been a COBOL programmer for a while, without even knowing.
- dreish 18y agoThe second paragraph was meant to refer to laws, not a programming language.
- iuguy 18y agoSounds like you need http://www.coboloncogs.org/INDEX.HTM http://www.coboloncogs.org/INDEX.HTM
- streblo 18y agoThey're in high demand. Blame our complex judicial system and the people looking to abuse it.
- ciscoriordan 18y agoPlus 3 years of law school and some tough bar exams.
- adharmad 18y agoSure. But we made those complex laws. We can simplify them for the benefit of the society! It amazes me sometimes.....so much money rolling towards a profession that does not produce any wealth!
- jibiki 18y agoI can understand the argument that lawyers are paid out of proportion to their contribution to society. But I've never understood the people who claim that they literally contribute nothing. It's better to have laws than to not have them, and laws require interpretation. That's what the legal system does. It may be that most lawyering is pointless, but certainly not all.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agokeep in mind that a lot of lawyers work 60-80 hour weeks.
- JabavuAdams 18y agoI'm guessing these aren't the programmer "I was in the office for 60ish hours, but got a lot of surfing and some side-project research, plus a bit of game-playing done" 60-80 hour weeks.
- jasonkester 18y ago$80,000 X 3 = $240k/year At an industry standard 80 hours/week, that works out to $60/hr. I don't know any good developers that would take a contract for only $60/hr. Do you?
- rgrieselhuber 18y agoExcellent point. It's actually quite miserable pay considering the lifestyle hit.
- geebee 18y agoThat is a fair point - though I actually doubt that 80 hrs/week is standard. There are those weeks, but they're not the norm. The lawyers I know (the ones at the big first) work about 50-60 hrs/week. Still tough, but nowhere near that bad. Unfortunately, this is all anecdotal, just what I've observed and what friends have told me. Also, the lawyer is not contracting - it's a job. I think plenty of developers would take a job that pays 240K/yr for a 60 hr workweek.
- aditya 18y ago$60/hr for 2080hr/year (assuming 40hr workweek) == $124,800/yr - plenty of developers would take that.
- JabavuAdams 18y agoI would. Does that make me easy, or just cheap?
- adharmad 18y agoProfession is protected and controlled (like medical profession). Supply is controlled. Too many complex laws. Need somebody to interpret them at a hefty fee!