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Ok, pardon me for asking a dumb question:
Why do we have so many lawyers as presidential candidates (both republican and democrat). We are talking about competing with India and China in this global economy, I checked their leadership: The Chinese president and Premier are both engineers. The Indian President is a rocket scientist (I am not kidding!) and the Prime minister is an oxford-trained economist.
Lawyers don't produce anything, if human society was perfect there won't be any lawyers! They are good at speaking and "spinning" the truth. Are we comfortable electing one for President?
Democratic frontrunners : Clinton, Edwards, Obama: All lawyers
Republican frontrunners: Giuliani, Romney: lawyers
Notable non-lawyers: John Mccain, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich
I am a registered independent, I just want to get feedback from everyone.
What do you think?
Lawyers advocate for those who can't advocate for themselves in a specialized forum. Don't produce anything? That's interesting. A number of the more basic rights that we take for granted have been garnered by lawyers. If society was perfect we wouldn't need any profession. We wouldn't need doctors. We wouldn't need teachers. We wouldn't need cops. We wouldn't need fire fighters. We wouldn't need bankers. We wouldn't need florists. Etc. Etc. Etc. Without lawyers, you wouldn't have a society of laws. So it's absurd to assail against them, particularly because they're one of the few self-regulated professions, meaning that they are more sincere than most in trying to keep high standards of ethics, although they hurt themselves by being so reluctant to disbar the unethical. But, you don't see teachers with the same level of ethical standards spelled out for everyone to see. It's a contrived argument to single out lawyers as some sort of "bane" of society. Everyone seems to ****** about them . . . until they need them. THEN . . . look!! Who's our buddy now? The lawyer. Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer runs for sanitation commissioner, rails on the incumbent, and as the incumbent leaves the office, Homer goes, "See? We're still friends. Now how about a cuddle?"
The issue I suspect regarding the disparity between our country and many in Asia stems from the stability of society. As an 1st-generation American, I was raised by Asian immigrants. They grew up in a society that was politically unstable. Within that society, the most stable, and most highly-respected professions were in the sciences. The sciences were least-privy to the whims of politics -- you always need doctors, and although it's possible to manipulate science politically, it's simply more difficult than to manipulate humanities-based professions.
No such jeopardy exists here in developing the humanities. We are the most stable democracy on earth. With that luxury, I sense that roles are more clearly defined -- perhaps self-defined, which may not be a good thing (in which doctors, engineers, etc don't feel comfortable venturing into unfamiliar territory).
Beyond that you have to deal with the corrupting environment of Washington, and how that scares potential candidates of all backgrounds away.
In a perfect society, you would still need doctors, teachers and engineers.
Notice that I said "perfect society" and not "perfect world". If there is no crime, you would not need lawyers, judges and lawmakers. You would still need doctors as many diseases are caused by infections and genetics, they have nothing to do with bad elements of society. You still need firemen for non-arson related fires and of course, teachers, because you have to educate your young.
But, let's not get into this utopian debate, because it really is a distraction from the point I was trying to get some opinion on: why do we have so many lawyers. This is what I think: In every society, the best and the brightest usually wants to pursue a career that pays the most (of course, there are exceptions). I think, in many countries in the world, lawyers simply don't make as much. In the US, they do. Which brings me to the other question: is the legal system in the US designed in such a way the lawyers make a lot of money (frivolous lawsuits etc), and if most lawmakers are actually lawyers, would they change the status-quo? So, I don't doubt the fact that many of them are competent people, I just doubt their intentions.
I am not trying to critize all lawyers, I just think there is a very unhealthy imbalance of lawyers vs. other professions in Washington. Is this what the founding fathers had in mind? You mentioned that our basic liberties are protected by lawyers, can you please substantiate that? How many lawyers raised hell (specially in Congress) when habeus corpus was suspended?
Which lawyer was responsible for the first amendment? And, where did you come to the conclusion that we are the most stable democracy on earth? I would agree more if you said "stable system of government", but democracy? No!
In a perfect society, you would still need doctors, teachers and engineers.
Notice that I said "perfect society" and not "perfect world". If there is no crime, you would not need lawyers, judges and lawmakers. You would still need doctors as many diseases are caused by infections and genetics, they have nothing to do with bad elements of society. You still need firemen for non-arson related fires and of course, teachers, because you have to educate your young.
But, let's not get into this utopian debate, because it really is a distraction from the point I was trying to get some opinion on: why do we have so many lawyers. This is what I think: In every society, the best and the brightest usually wants to pursue a career that pays the most (of course, there are exceptions). I think, in many countries in the world, lawyers simply don't make as much. In the US, they do. Which brings me to the other question: is the legal system in the US designed in such a way the lawyers make a lot of money (frivolous lawsuits etc), and if most lawmakers are actually lawyers, would they change the status-quo? So, I don't doubt the fact that many of them are competent people, I just doubt their intentions.
I am not trying to critize all lawyers, I just think there is a very unhealthy imbalance of lawyers vs. other professions in Washington. Is this what the founding fathers had in mind? You mentioned that our basic liberties are protected by lawyers, can you please substantiate that? How many lawyers raised hell (specially in Congress) when habeus corpus was suspended?
Which lawyer was responsible for the first amendment? And, where did you come to the conclusion that we are the most stable democracy on earth? I would agree more if you said "stable system of government", but democracy? No!
Define this imbalance you perceive.
I would think, logically speaking, that the pool of "stable system of government" would encompass "democracy," since a democracy is a system of government. So, I don't see how having the most stable system of government could not also inherently involve having the most stable democracy. Unless you're implying we aren't a democracy.
Stability requires a number of things -- length of time under a single system, nature of change in leadership (violent vs. peaceful), and, obviously, whetner it currently exists (obsolete democracies or systems of government aren't stable today).
I agree we may have differing perspectives on "perfect society." Even with your distinction, I disagree with your conclusion. But you get my point, even in a "perfect society," under your definition, we would not need police officers. It's no so much an reflection of the respective professions, but an reflection on the reality of human nature.
I think most people that want to go into politics understand that becoming an attorney is today one of the established career paths to follow. Since there is no "politician" degree. Found this statistic off a blog -
Next question: how many members of Congress? 435 in the House + 200 in the Senate = 635. So 199 out of 635 members of Congress were lawyers. That's roughly 31%. That's a lot of lawyers, but it's actually not quite as high as many people would think.
I am not so sure it is to help mankind, but rather they can afford to due to the major law suits they have won. When you have made enough money, you can afford to do something else.
I think most people that want to go into politics understand that becoming an attorney is today one of the established career paths to follow. Since there is no "politician" degree. Found this statistic off a blog -
Next question: how many members of Congress? 435 in the House + 200 in the Senate = 635. So 199 out of 635 members of Congress were lawyers. That's roughly 31%. That's a lot of lawyers, but it's actually not quite as high as many people would think.
In general I respect the profession, but abhor the influence.
I actually was somewhat relieved to hear that there are more law school graduates then there are attorney positions since the Great Recession began. Why? Because most attorneys I encounter (many on a weekly basis) are arrogant and prance around as if their lawyer status demands some sort of special status and access. I'm all for a correction in the number of those types walking around lol. More than one attorney has walked away from my office knowing that I run the show, not the other way around. And you can tell it gets in their crawl.
Nevertheless, I agree that law school should not necessarily be a gateway to elected office, but I also agree that lawyers are a necessary evil.
Our legislators make laws.
Our presidents enforce the laws.
We hold up our country as a "Nation of Laws"
It makes sense to me those professions/positions would attract people who dedicate themselves to the study and practice of the law.
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