Sorry Ajilon Staffing... Had to post this..

Document Review Attorney - Philadelphia, PA


"We currently seeking licensed attorneys with Russian fluancy for a short term document review project. This positoin can be worked out of either the Philadelphia or DC offices of an well known international law firm. Hourly rate will be determind by expeireince and will be competative with market rates. Qualified candidates should email theirr resume in MS Word format."


No, I didn't make this up. You can't make crap like this up. They require that you speak Russian fluently. They require that you be a licensed attorney. Meanwhile, they don't even require that their own employees possess the ability to type in English and spell correctly, or, heaven forbid, use spell check. The person who wrote that ad is either lazy or doesn't spell well enough to complete that task or both. God bless whomever it is, but to the millions of "overqualified" unemployed Americans, the thought that the writer of that ad has a job probably doesn't sit to well.

Gotta Love the Legal Industry

The NJ Ethics Committee submarined solo practicioners on Friday, ruling that virtual offices do not meet the "bona fide" office requirement.

"In an action that could affect large numbers of New Jersey practitioners, two court regulatory committees said on Friday that "virtual offices" staffed by receptionists who are mere answering services do not satisfy New Jersey's bona fide office rule."

So, basically if you can't get a job at a firm and you don't have enough resources to rent a real brick and mortar office, you can't practice. For those who ran up debt in law school and didn't finish high enough in your class for a legal job, I heard bartending school's reasonably priced. And they have loans for that too!

As justification for a useless rule that other states have already jettisoned, the article points out that it was formed to "keep out-of-state practitioners at bay" and (ok, you can laugh) "partly to put a stop to lawyers who ran their businesses out of saloons, social clubs and pay-phone booths."

:-/

The Rape of the Post-1970s Generations Continues

Guess who will take the brunt of the new Healthcare Reform Bull? The same group of people who will be paying a gazillion dollars in principle and interest for student loans. Yes, Debt Children, if student loan debt doesn't thrill you enough, don't worry - it only gets better,according to the following excerpt:

"Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans—a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect."

So, let's break it down:

Post 1970s generations will bear the brunt of the collapsing Ponzi-Scheme that some geniuses decided to call "Social Security." Be secure with the fact that you will have a negative return on the money you dump into this program for 40+ years, while the first recipient had a return of over 90,000%. Try to remain social in the likely case that you don't get anything back at all.

Along with that, we have Medicare, which is in even worse financial shape. That one will likely peter out as well leaving none other than the Debt Children holding the bag.

Of course, there's the endless foreign adventurism that we'll have to foot the bill for.

The Healthcare Reform Bull is just the icing on the cake. But I'm sure there's more to come. D.C. has an endless supply of great ideas.

Stay tuned.

Obama Healthcare Bull Quotables (with commentary)

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi on passing the healthcare bull:

"It's on a par with passing Social Security and Medicare."

Awesome. Maybe Nancy gets pumped up about that, but for some reason, any program "on par" with the bilking future generations to the tune of $107 trillion in unfunded liabilities doesn't exactly strike me as a selling point. But then again, I'm not a D.C. politician.


Former Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney:

"[Obama's] health-care bill is unhealthy for America. It raises taxes, slashes the more private side of Medicare, installs price controls, and puts a new federal bureaucracy in charge of health care. It will create a new entitlement even as the ones we already have are bankrupt. For these reasons and more, the act should be repealed. That campaign begins today."

Dude, didn't you do the same thing when you were governor of Massachusetts? Wasn't that "unhealthy?" What changed? What's the difference? Wtf?



Lew Rockwell, President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute:

"NPR ... said that one difference between the failed Clinton plan and [Obama's plan] was that Ramn {sic} Emmanuel brought 'industry groups into the tent, and kept them there.' [emphasis mine] True, of course. Chicago machine pol Rahm made sure that the pharmaceutical industry and others got the big bucks from the taxpayers, on top of the big bucks they already get. "But why no details? How come NPR and the rest of the MSM aren’t telling us about who gets what? Because that would reveal Obamacare as a fascist big-government, big-industry combine against the taxpayers and the middle-class."

The middle class is indeed being destroyed. Why? Well, you do the math:

America = Military Industrial Complex + Healthcare Industrial Complex + "Education" Industrial Complex + Big Agriculture Industrial Complex + Banking Industrial Complex²

With those fat cats getting such huge slices of the pie, how could much be left for a middle class?


Republican Senator Orrin Hatch: "You reach a point where you say, who is going to pay for all of this? And it's going to come down to us taxpayers. And like I say, it's the Europeanization of America, and that's the worst thing that could possibly happen to our country."

Who is going to pay for all this? Well, probably the same Debt Children who will be paying for the gazillion dollar prescription drug benefit that you voted for in 2003, Senator. Oh, I forgot - Repubs don't ask such questions when a fellow Repub is in office.

What a joke. And who's kidding whom? These republicans would be supporting this healthcare bull if McCain had won.

Well, what can I say folks? Virtually any major legislation passed that affects Americans living in America primarily benefits one of the industrial complexes that I mentioned earlier in this post.

Let's call them The Big Five - Military, Healthcare, Big Agri, "Education," and Banking².

They don't care about the debt incurred to finance their feasts. If they can't pay their own debt, they'll be bailed out or handed another government contract. If they fail, they will be given more power and funding. If they crap their pants, the Debt Children will clean their runny boxer shorts pursuant to dictates from Washington D.C. and IRS agents.

Good afternoon. You are being hosed

As if you needed further proof, the following is an example of how the United States government has inflated education costs to create generations of Debt Children.

Harvard graduate and current University of Buffalo professor Michael S. Rozeff cites that his yearly costs for Harvard in 1958 (room and board) were $2020/yr maximum. The median family income was at least $5100/year in 1958 and even higher for those families where the head of household worked full-time throughout the year. Yes, Debt Children - Harvard room and board for a full year was under 40% of the median family income per year.

Compare that with today, where Harvard room and board has breached the $50k/year level, and median income as of 2008 was about $61k. Harvard room and board for a full year is now about 82% of the median family income.

Further, in 1958 about 28% of married couple households had both husband and wife in the paid work force. Less people were working per household.

As of 2008, that figure is 61%. People are working more and getting less for it. And I haven't even figured in the comparative tax burdens for those two periods, which are higher now than they were then (Example: Federal tax burdens have more than doubled since 1965). Americans are being screwed over - plain and simple.

To save enough to pay for a decent part of that Harvard education today would take a long time - much longer than it would have in 1958. But the government offers the student loan quick fix coupled with higher ed propaganda to herd young Americans off to college where they will party for 4-6 years before spending the next 20-30 paying interest to the banks.

Who benefits from this? The Education Industrial Complex, Sallie Mae, the banks and the DC politicians who take credit for "educating" the nation's youth. They don't care how the problem was caused and they will only offer more of the same, despite the consequences.

What caused this problem? The flood of federal student loans has caused this problem. Other government policies that feed the education industry, based on the ridiculous belief that "more degrees = higher income for everyone" have also caused this problem. The Federal Reserve has caused this problem.

Those policies were short-sighted and have plunged post-1970s generations in a seemingly endless cycle of debt. Remember this when Congress talks about higher ed and "lowering costs" of education by increasing funding for student loans. Remember this whenever the Federal Reserve is mentioned. Remember this when you hear the name "Sallie Mae."

Other sources: Table F-7 http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/incfamdet.html

Fellow law school grads will like this one ;) :
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1960/10/6/law-school-tuition-increases-to-1250/

The Day of Reckoning Has Come

Real economists Marc Faber and Mike Shedlock dish out the bad news. Our economy has gone from needing one income per household to get by, to two incomes to get by. Now we need two incomes plus a shitload of debt. Given that we can't pay back the debt, we are looking at a serious collapse. Faber and Shedlock also tell us to try not to laugh when we hear the D.C. Pols talk about a "recovery."

This is the Neo-America that was handed to us. We were Debt Children before we were even born. All of the great ideas of prior generations ensured our indebted status - from the Federal Reserve (1913) to the New Deal (1933-Present), to the Great Society, to the hundreds of military interventions, to the Education Industrial Complex... I could go on and on.

And that's not even mentioning the current regime of corporate socialism that calls for bailouts of failed companies. How can this be called capitalism? How can this country claim that it possesses "free markets" anymore? Someone please give me an answer.

All is not lost, though. We will just have to widen our scope. There are always opportunities out there. Some will still be in the US, others will be in other parts of the world. It is a shame, however, that the current political establishment (including all mainstream Republicans and Democrats), are driving 300,000,000 Americans off a cliff in a car sponsored by Capital One, American Express, Fannie, Freddie and Sallie. Goldman Suchs is in the passenger seat, navigating. It didn't have to happen this way.

Jobless Juris Debtor? Harass Americans for $10/hr!

Can't Get a Job After Law School? Try the Census Bureau


In short, this is another suggestion for the countless, penniless law school victims. How should you pay your student loans? Well, why not harass neighbors on behalf of the US Government? It's kind of like door to door sales, except the customer receives no benefit from you and is already being taxed to pay you.

The article uses an example of a laid-off attorney turned professional harasser to illustrate how bad the legal market sucks. This attorney is now making $21.50/hr, which is on the high end for census harassers. It also points out how the government benefits from the unemployed talent pool (which its own policies have created).

The most disturbing part of this piece, however, is that random writers with no apparent connection to the legal field are now taking the role of law school career counselors. A sign of the times indeed.

Law school applicants, take heed.

I thought I was reading "The Onion" ...

When I saw this article intro: "In an encouraging sign for the economy, U.S. consumers increased their debt in January for the first time in a year, just the latest hint that household demand may be on an upswing."

More. Consumer. Debt. Is. An. Encouraging. Sign.

Stop laughing. It's not funny.

If this type of economic philosophy - the kind that implies that we can basically sit on our asses and borrow our way to prosperity - is going to continue to rule the day, then we're done. That type of reasoning has lead to the current crisis. Too much debt with not enough income caused the collapse. What is needed is less spending and more saving. Sure, it's painful. It sucks. But it has to be done.

The media tend to believe that no pain from withdrawal is necessary to solve the problem. Problems with debt? Borrow more!

Give Tiger another porno star.

Give Barak another cigarette.

Give Americans more loans.


That is the US Government's policy logic in a nutshell.


This is your "Change," Debt Children. Don't spend it all in one place, because your credit card is over the limit.


That type of economic reasoning is the spawn of John Maynard Keynes. May it be forever discredited.


Healthy economies grow from production, saving and investing, not borrowing and spending.

So... Why did you go to law school?

Why... I spent 3 years and tens of thousands to increase my earning potential to... $40k/year?!?

Well, yeah, according to an Arizona State University paper:

"Starting salaries for attorneys have declined with firms. The average for a starting attorney used to be between $65,000 and $70,000 annually, with larger companies starting associates at $100,000 ... Now, attorneys will begin at $40,000 in smaller companies and $75,000 in larger firms."

I know this isn't news to those who are reading this blog, but to those who aren't in the know, the TV version of the legal profession and the reality are two very different things. Attorneys are not bringing in shitloads of money just because they are attorneys.

Thank FAFSA, thank Sallie Mae and thank Congress for blowing up the Law School Bubble. Attorney salaries are tumbling, contract attorney rates are falling and tuition is still... going up!

This makes no sense, which is pretty typical for bubbles. But it all is coming to an end. The student loans will default, Sallie Mae will go under. The word about the tanking salaries will get out to prospective Juris Debtors. The TTTs will go under, and the law school scam will be completely exposed in due time.

China Begins Foreclosure of US

Our government and our citizens cannot pay back what we have borrowed. So, in typical mortgage lender fashion, China is slowly dumping the right to collect interest on their goo-gobs of loans to us in exchange for the right to sell the underlying assets. Can ownership of a country be transferred via sheriff sale? Hmm... I don't think they covered that in law school...

Well, at least we have good company

We in the US aren't the only Debt Children in this world. Greece has been in the news as of late, having mortgaged itself with a toxic loan and hidden its transgressions via Goldman Sachs.

Now the UK's ugly teeth are being revealed before our poor eyes. The kicker is that their debt ratio is so massive that the British Pound (GBP) even lost ground against the Zimbabwe dollar. For those not versed in currency talk, that is like losing ground in a running race... to a corpse.

The real money is in Asia now, Debt Children. The lenders are from China and Japan. We are the borrowers.

Craigslist Ad of the Day 3/2/10

My Law Degree (Seriously) - $59250 (lower pac hts)

---

Date: 2010-02-24, 8:56PM PST
Reply to: sale-ju475-1616836329@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

After several years of practicing law with a bunch of nerds in Silicon Valley I have come to the conclusion that my law degree is useless and I don't want to be a lawyer anymore. Though I spent over $100,000 on it I am willing to sell it for the bargain basement price of $59,250, which is the current value of my remaining student loan balance.

This priceless collectible will permit you to be surrounded by hobby-less assholes whose entire life is dictated by billing by the hour and being anal dickheads. Additionally, this piece of paper has the amazing ability to keep you from doing what you really want to do in life, all in the name of purported prestige and financial success. Finally, girls in the Marina will swoon with retarded thoughts of sugar daddy when they hear you went to XXX prestigious law school and are a lawyer.

Act now as supplies are limited and this crap takes three years to make. DISCLAIMER: this piece of shit isn't even written in English. It's in Latin or something, but I have the translation. It says "Haha. We took your tuition money bitch, now suck it. Sincerely, President of the University"

Added Bonus: It's from one of those elitist BS institutions that accept people like George W. Bush cause their daddy donated $20 million. Instead of donating $20 million you can have it for the low low price of $59,250 or best offer.

This is actually a serious post. I will really sell this piece of shit.


Any buyers? I swear, as a licensed broker, if there were a futures market for law school degrees, I would be shorting the hell out of it right now. The bubble has exploded just like the housing bubble. Going into law school right now is like buying an overpriced McMansion with an adjustable-rate mortgage. Unless it is something you are absolutely sure that you are going to use and love for the next 10-20 years, you'd better look at other options. If you are a 1L with mediocre to low grades, drop out now - there's still time left. Be smart and cut your losses.

Law School Bubble Deflates Harvard

An anonymous Harvard 3L lets the cat out of the bag. He was sold a bag of wooden nickels for $62,422/year plus interest and opportunity costs. It really is a shame. Having been admitted to Harvard Law, this Debt Child, probably had enough undergraduate credentials to go directly into the work force and make a good living without subjecting himself to a law degree/mortgage payment. Too bad.


"[Our former Dean] told us ... that we had all long since established ourselves as deserving of our reputations and the opportunities they made possible. So we studied, and we subcited, and we networked, and we keycited, and we summer associated. And employers looked at our grades, and our journals, and our work product, and our work ethic, and said, 'We don’t want you.' We came from Harvard, and they were nonetheless unimpressed. Something about us was so unappealing that it outweighed the appeal of having another Harvard graduate at the firm."


It's over, my fellow Debt Children. The law school bubble has burst just like the 1990s tech bubble in stocks and the housing bubble. The value of the degree will continue to plummet, despite the predictable government attempts to find ways to prop up its value.

What will not be forthcoming is an apology from the federal government for blowing up the law school bubble. They'll blame it on private schools, Enron or the tooth fairy before they admit to any wrongdoing. After all, didn't they point out "greed" as the primary reason for the housing bubble, another catastrophe caused by loans that are backed by the Federal Government and other government policies?

If greed causes bubbles, Mr. Congress, why does it wait for artificially low interest rates, easy money for school or other government initiatives before it does its dirty work?

Law School: Just Say "No"

Don't go to law school. It's expensive, it's time consuming and it's a bad investment. I would say the same about other grad schools, but this is the only one I can speak about from first-hand experience. For those of you who want to be a litigator and actually have enough experience in the legal field to know that litigation is what you want to do, you can ignore this. You may want to be an attorney even if it is a bad deal. But if you are thinking about law school and you have no experience working at a firm and/or are not 100% sure you want to practice, take the following advice to the bank:

1.Law School is Expensive: $90,000 or $60,000 of red ink. You choose. Private or public. I chose the latter (thank God), but $60k is no laughing matter. Those of you who already have debt from undergrad may want to consider whether you want to be making the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment for a couple of degrees that won't put a shred of shelter over your head. Oh, if you are thinking about spending more than $90k on law school, you're an idiot. By the way, that debt number I listed does not include interest and opportunity costs (the money that you could have been earning during the time you were in law school). That is one hell of an "investment" and will likely be the largest or second largest financial transaction of your young life, depending on how much dough you flushed for undergrad.

2. It's time consuming. Three full years of your life. Three of your best years - your 20s - spent taking notes, writing briefs and sweating out exams rather than earning money and finding time to enjoy that which you have earned. On top of that, even after you graduate your degree is pretty much worthless for a legal career until you pass you state's bar exam. Add another 2 months or more of earning little to no income while studying for the bar. Then top that off with the rip-off mainstream bar prep courses and the bar application fee. That's another $2-3k minimum that your putting up, plus the all-too forgotten opportunity costs.

3. It's a bad investment. Supply and demand, people. It's all pretty simple. There are too many lawyers out there thanks to Federal Student Loans and the Law School Industrial Complex. As partially noted earlier, The loans throw the market way out of whack by bringing 10s of thousands more people to law school that would not have gone otherwise. There will be over 44,000 law grads thrust into the economy this year. The number of law jobs is shrinking and is destined to shrink for some time. I guess that is why you can go on craisglist and see pathetic listings of lawyers begging for jobs every day.

If you buy into the grad-school = higher income equation, you might want to take a shorter program. Perhaps an MBA would work. It is more versitile, takes less time, and you don't have school (Bar exam) after school.

My suggestion(s): Work. Gain experience even if you're only being paid shit. If your folks have the means to help you out or if you can live at home temporarily, great. Experience will be at a premium given the state of the economy.

Look at it this way: The Higher Education Industry (HEI) will continue to churn out more undergrad and grad degrees thanks to the lack of jobs. Why? Because the Baby Boomer mentality (our parents) tells us to go back to school where you can learn no skills for the bargain price of $50k plus 8% interest. The degree, so goes the story, will make you worth more to employers.

Unfortunately, in 8 years most of these degrees will be almost worthless in comparison to what was spent to earn them. There are already too many out there and the rate at which they are being churned out is only increasing. Hundreds of thousands more will have that premium piece of paper. What will set you apart from the competition will be real-world experience. Get your undergrad degree and work. If you still want to go to law school after that, suit yourself. At least you will have the work experience to buttress the grad degree or to at least use as a fall back.

Face It: College is the new high school

What did you expect? Washington DC politicians wanted everyone to have a college degree. Now everyone has one. It's called education inflation. The more degrees that are out there being used to pump up resumes, the less value they have. More degrees are competing for the same (or shrinking) number of jobs available. That would make grad school the new undergrad, then, right? Not quite, as this is even happening with graduate degrees.

See the job ad below:

[Deleted]
Program Coordinator/Site Director Position

[Deleted] is seeking a full time Program Coordinator/Site Director to manage its after school program at [Deleted]. This program operates daily and uses non traditional sports as a vehicle to enhance academic and leadership skills in youth k-8. The Program Coordinator will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the program including recruitment, training,and on-going support of staff, parents and volunteers; as well as data collection and record keeping of the participants and their activities and maintaining partnerships with community organizations.

Qualifications:
Minimum BS degree in education,sports management,recreation and/or related field - Master's preferred
Minimum of 4 years of experience managing an after school or in school program serving minority youth.
Evidence of sport participation
Excellent writing and oral communication skills

Salary - $30,000- $37,000 depending on qualifications

[Deleted] is an equal opportinity [sic] employer

Would YOU spend tens of thousands of dollars for a master's degree that will earn you $30-37k?