3 ms·

The result of that would be similar to medical school in the US - a very small percentage of those who apply can get in. I think it's what the profession needs,

The result of that would be similar to medical school in the US - a very small percentage of those who apply can get in. I think it's what the profession needs, but good luck convincing the BigLaw companies and law schools to go along with you. "Well yeah, the legal profession is inundated with unemployed kids in debt up to their eyeballs. That's what makes it so great!"

jessaustin 12y ago
Since most of us will only ever see medical care from the patient's perspective, it might surprise us that many physicians consider the medical profession to have the same problem, just not yet to the same degree as the legal profession. Of course the externalities of surplus lawyers are much worse for society than the externalities of surplus physicians.
- robryk 12y ago
  > Of course the externalities of surplus lawyers are much worse for society than the externalities of surplus physicians. Would you care to explain why? My guess is that you mean that a surplus of lawyers can cause additional demand for lawyers, which can't happen for physicians. Do I understand you correctly?
  - ufmace 12y ago
    I suppose if you have too many lawyers and not enough jobs for them, some will run around filing frivolous lawsuits that the counterparty will have to hire more lawyers to defend against. If you have too many doctors and not enough hurt people for them to heal, what are they going to do? Run around hurting people so that they can then heal them?
- crazypyro 12y ago
  Isn't there a major shortage in general practitioners? I vaguely remember some doom/gloom story about how America was going to run out of regular doctors. Seems contradictory to your statement though.
frenchman_in_ny 12y ago
Interesting discussion of medical school admissions and the limiting factors here [0], from a few days ago. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8122377 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8122377

jessaustin 12y ago

Since most of us will only ever see medical care from the patient's perspective, it might surprise us that many physicians consider the medical profession to have the same problem, just not yet to the same degree as the legal profession. Of course the externalities of surplus lawyers are much worse for society than the externalities of surplus physicians.

robryk 12y ago
> Of course the externalities of surplus lawyers are much worse for society than the externalities of surplus physicians. Would you care to explain why? My guess is that you mean that a surplus of lawyers can cause additional demand for lawyers, which can't happen for physicians. Do I understand you correctly?
- ufmace 12y ago
  I suppose if you have too many lawyers and not enough jobs for them, some will run around filing frivolous lawsuits that the counterparty will have to hire more lawyers to defend against. If you have too many doctors and not enough hurt people for them to heal, what are they going to do? Run around hurting people so that they can then heal them?
crazypyro 12y ago
Isn't there a major shortage in general practitioners? I vaguely remember some doom/gloom story about how America was going to run out of regular doctors. Seems contradictory to your statement though.

frenchman_in_ny 12y ago

Interesting discussion of medical school admissions and the limiting factors here [0], from a few days ago. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8122377 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8122377