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I have a friend who sometimes asks, to stoke conversation: "What's one thing you believe that no one else does?" One answer? The law school boom isn't over. I

by malchow 12y ago

I have a friend who sometimes asks, to stoke conversation: "What's one thing you believe that no one else does?" One answer? The law school boom isn't over. I have a J.D. from Stanford (though I spend my time investing and working on my own projects), and though the legal education industry is in many respects quite hidebound and deserving of a downward correction, there is one swift wind filling the sails. It's what Milovan Djilas[1] called "the new class." Djilas was a Yugoslav Soviet dissident. For a brief instant he was a true believer. But Djilas saw by 1954 that a large government tasked with redistribution was giving rise to a new elite: the redistributors. He wrote articles about "the new class" and was kicked out of the Party. A friend of mine, a law professor in Knoxville, wrote about this in USA Today yesterday: "Here in the United States, a lot of programs officially aimed at the poor look suspiciously like subsidies to the New Class, too. Among "means-tested" programs, Food Stamps, now officially called SNAP, cover about 46 million people up to 125% of the poverty line (set at about $16,000 for a single mother and child). Other programs, such as the Earned Income Tax credit, cover people at slightly higher incomes, up to 200% of the poverty line. When federal spending on the dozens of programs are added up and state and local contributions included, the budget for assistance is about $1 trillion. "If we simply handed those people, perhaps 60 million of them, their share of the cash, that would be more than $16,500 each. A single mom and her baby would get over $33,000, twice as much as a poverty wage. A family of four would land more than $66,000, $15,000 more than the average family income. "So where's the money going? To people who aren't poor, such as doctors paid through Medicaid or landlords paid through Section 8. And to tens of thousands of members of the New Class, people like social workers, administrators and lawyers who run more than 120 different means tested federal programs."[2] And law school is the gate to a federal job. That's a powerful expansionary force supporting legal education. Also, a Maserati dealer has just opened in Arlington, Virginia. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_%C4%90ilas#Dissident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milovan_%C4%90ilas#Dissident [2] http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/07/regulations-class-wealth-income-inequality-opportunity-reynolds-column/12266651/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/07/07/regulations... [3] http://www.arlnow.com/2014/07/07/maserati-of-arlington-now-open/ http://www.arlnow.com/2014/07/07/maserati-of-arlington-now-o...

1ris 12y ago
The idea of just cutting all those social programs and handing out the cash instead seems like a huge vision for a new, freer, society. I really like that. OTOH especially the health sector does not work as a market, as demand is for health services for sick people is simple infinite (e.g. they pay every price). For the rest, I agree.
- malchow 12y ago
  Milton Friedman was very supportive of a single, national, flat, 'basic income' type redistribution.
  - refurb 12y ago
    Not to turn this into a basic income thread, but one concern I would have with it is, what do you do with people who take their $16K and spend it all on drugs or alcohol or gamble it away? Tell them "tough, that's all you get?" and let them die in the street? You'd still need social programs for those who can't/won't take on the responsibilities of daily living. I don't think many people would have the stomach for that.
    - dllthomas 12y ago
      If someone is given the resources they need, and cannot manage them effectively, then they have bigger problems than simple provision of more resources is likely to help with. They can hopefully get the help they need in some more hands-on charity, from friends or family, from mental health programs, or from some other program more targeted at addressing their issues. Which is to say, of course, that yes - some kind of further assistance is eventually necessary in some cases, but let's not drown those cases in people who simply need access to more resources.
    - joshAg 12y ago
      well, don't give it to them all at once. pay everyone biweekely or twice a month or something similar. you'll still have idiots doing stupid shit, but less people spending their entire income on a Yaris in January with no thought of how they'll feed themselves in December.

by malchow 12y ago

1ris 12y ago

The idea of just cutting all those social programs and handing out the cash instead seems like a huge vision for a new, freer, society. I really like that. OTOH especially the health sector does not work as a market, as demand is for health services for sick people is simple infinite (e.g. they pay every price). For the rest, I agree.

malchow 12y ago
Milton Friedman was very supportive of a single, national, flat, 'basic income' type redistribution.
- refurb 12y ago
  Not to turn this into a basic income thread, but one concern I would have with it is, what do you do with people who take their $16K and spend it all on drugs or alcohol or gamble it away? Tell them "tough, that's all you get?" and let them die in the street? You'd still need social programs for those who can't/won't take on the responsibilities of daily living. I don't think many people would have the stomach for that.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    If someone is given the resources they need, and cannot manage them effectively, then they have bigger problems than simple provision of more resources is likely to help with. They can hopefully get the help they need in some more hands-on charity, from friends or family, from mental health programs, or from some other program more targeted at addressing their issues. Which is to say, of course, that yes - some kind of further assistance is eventually necessary in some cases, but let's not drown those cases in people who simply need access to more resources.
  - joshAg 12y ago
    well, don't give it to them all at once. pay everyone biweekely or twice a month or something similar. you'll still have idiots doing stupid shit, but less people spending their entire income on a Yaris in January with no thought of how they'll feed themselves in December.