Thursday, March 14, 2013

JDs and the Myth of Meritocracy

No one has it easy.

Bulls**t, I hear you say.  That homeless dude I stepped over on the way to work?  Get a job.  That worthless slob over at the DMV?  No way.  That prissy pharmacist’s assistant at the local Walgreen’s?  It’s not who you know, it’s who you blow.   That know-it-all HR woman at the office?  Same thing, if not more so.  And what does that Boomer CEO actually do all day, besides play golf?

Notice the progression.  Job or no job, it doesn’t matter.  As we move up the educational ladder, it doesn’t matter.  If we change genders, it doesn’t matter.  If we modify the starting conditions and social capital, it doesn’t matter.  “I” work hard.  “You people” are entitled, special snowflakes that don’t deserve anything because you don’t work hard.

Our culture takes the Myth of Meritocracy to the extreme, and it’s destructive.  It paints people into organic robot slaves at best, and completely inhuman trolls at worst.  There is no “we”, only “I” and the rest of you dolts.  And any respect or fealty that is given to others is ultimately grudging and false.

The Law School Scam plays right into this hubris and confirmation bias.  “Yes, THOSE people couldn’t cut it, but YOU can.  We are willing to anoint you with legal knowledge and expertise, because we bestow merit when we see merit.  With this degree, you will change the world.  95% of our graduates have jobs requiring a JD at an average $135k per year.  Sign here.”  And then they diligently trot out the graduate from 10 years ago or more, who (if they are honest) talks about how they “fell into this such-and-such practice, then fell into that such-and-such practice, presto-change-o, so can you!”

Amway, higher-ed style.

What is the response of the masses?  After the ego-stroke and the shock-and-awe tactics, one thinks “Well, in spite of all the bad data and the terrible odds, I’m willing to work hard.  That will make the difference as to why I will succeed, and the other schleps will fail.  Yeah, that’s the ticket!” See, e.g., http://subprimejd.blogspot.com/2013/03/fine-wine-and-law-school-applicant.html

Wait, but everyone “works hard,” remember?  That’s not unique, it is actually beyond common.  That is the flip-side of “no one has it easy.”  Meritocracy is not where it’s at.  We know this.  The world demonstrates this on a daily basis.  We’re not all special snowflakes.  Grades are on a curve.  Despite best efforts things sometime fail, even if they are the “better quality” solution (Hello, Betamax).  What does succeed is often a serendipitous combination of things no one could have foreseen nor purposely, intentionally brought together (Hello, Facebook), or things that were just plain flat-out given to you and not to others (Hello, fourth-generation legacies).

Even with all of his advantages, did Mitt Romney just not “work hard enough” to become president?  That’s the only “rational” conclusion, right?  Did Hillary Clinton just not “want it bad enough?”  I guess so.  What other explanation can there possibly be?

The Law School Scam?  They know the truth about the practice of law and of the marketplace – most of them got out as soon as they could, frankly, if there were ever in it in the first place.  They know that “merit” only works for the top 5%, if it even works at all.  I knew the top-five (not top 5%) at my school, and strangely they were not drowning in offers.  The schools know what it is really all about.

Do they say so?  No.  They play right to our worst nature, and try to cover it up with a fancy façade of “defending liberty” and “pursuing justice.”  At outrageous costs that are detrimental to most graduates.  Once the snake-oil checks have been cashed, then and only then do they say “Look to your left, look to your right, because one of you won’t be here by the end of the year.”  My, how quickly things change once the money changes hands.

Do we need lawyers?  Yes.  Do we need 40,000 new lawyers a year?  No.  Do we need Law Schools to revert from profit centers to institutions that actually practice what they preach and serve their mission (which might not actually involve pumping out as many lawyers as possible)?  Yes.

In short, we need Law Schools to stop shilling the Myth of Meritocracy, because, frankly, they know better.  Their endowments are supposed to allow them to take the high road on these issues.

Oh, and also stop the lying heretofore about employment outcomes in general.  That too.  Kthxbai.     

13 comments:

  1. This compliments my post last week about The Mythology of the Elite where the cultural mythos about fairness and meritocracy is an essential cornerstone for protecting th status quo and the rich.

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  2. Kudos to you both on these posts. They get to the crux of the matter which is meritocracy is like religion -- an opiate to the masses. It keeps everyone working and sacrificing for the ultimate benefit of the guy on top. Then, when the capitalist bubble pops, which is every twenty years or so, the losers are ruined and told they just didn't work hard enough or made a bad choice.

    Note also that when this country was founded the Constitution specifically made reference to bankruptcy. It did this because the founding fathers knew there were losers in Capitalism, wanted people taking risks, and wanted to make those debts dischargeable so that lives were not ruined. Society as a whole benefits when lives are not destroyed by Capitalism. This is the problem with the amendments were made to the bankruptcy code. It turns a generation into indentured servants.

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    1. Yes, it's ye olde colonial roache, complete with tri-corner hat and Uncle Sam stilts!

      Did the Founding Fathers live with THEIR parents until they were 50? Hm?

      Your life wasn't "destroyed by capitalism." A preternaturally lazy roach came along and gobbled it all up instead.

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    2. P.S. "Society as a whole benefits" when student loans are dischargeable.

      LOL, I'd love to hear more about this great plan of yours and how it will "benefit" me.

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    3. How exactly does society benefit when these kids are indentured servants the rest of their lives and can't have a family or buy a car or a house, O Great Capitalist One? At least in Colonial Days you could work off your servitude in seven years or so. Now it's never.

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    4. When these magical purchases of houses and cars are being paid for BY the taxpayers, I'd say that more than cancels out the crumbs of "stimulus bux" that MIGHT their way back to them.

      "Patriotism" has never been so cheap: just spend the living shit out of someone ELSE's money (on yourself, of course) to make America strong. By going to an expensive three-year resort (law school), for example.

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    5. Dude, your tax dollars are already paying for the scam and these kids are never going to be able to pay the money back working as baristas. The only issue is do you ruin them for life? I guess if you are in to spite you do

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    6. If it was "already" paid for with tax dollars, there wouldn't be any debt to discharge, now would there?

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  3. http://milawyersweekly.com/milwblog/2013/03/14/report-waive-bar-exam-allow-bankruptcy-discharges-for-loans/

    Are things actually happening in the real world? Making student loan debt dischargeable in bk would end the higher ed (but specifically law school) nightmare in a few years. I think we are getting there.

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  4. A little off topic, but I've recently befriended a young underemployed minister who pointed me to an analogous discussion that's been going on for several years regarding the seminary crisis. There are more than twice as many seminarians graduating than vacancies, and as congregations age and don't want to hear sermons from young, callow clergy, the situation is just getting worse.

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    1. No, not really off topic. It's a generational crisis. Educational bubble plus wage collapse. Law school just happens to be the one where the institutions decided to misrepresent statistics.

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  5. MERITOCRACY IS ABOUT GOVERNMENTS AND SEMI GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS USING THE PRINCIPLE OF MERIT WHEN CHOOSING LEADERS AND EMPLOYEES.
    MERIT CONSISTS OF THREE QUALITIES AND THEY ARE:
    HONESTY
    CIVILITY
    JOB SPECIFIC COMPETENCE.
    CHECK MY INTERNET PROFILE ON www.google.com THEN SURF THE LINKS.
    VIEW MY TWO VIDEOS ON www.youtube.com THEN EMULATE ME SIDNEY COAD WILLIAMS HEALTH AND PEACE ACTIVIST.

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