Maybe it's like hiring marketing experts. It's profitable for an individual to hire a marketing expert to try to gain a larger market share even though their work seems totally unproductive (producing no value) from the perspective of society as a whole.
That said, I don't think lawyers are totally unproductive; trashing lawyers is a major indoor sport in the US but ignores those who are the heroes of John Grisham books (while often forgetting the truly evil corporate lawyers). As long as there are laws and conflicts, people will need lawyers. On the other hand, lawyers often seem to create demand for each other: I need a lawyer because the other guy has one, so their efforts cancel out. ------------------------ Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > -----Original Message----- > From: David S. Shemano [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 9:45 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Back to slavery > > > Michael Perelman writes: > > >> Do lawyers really limit transactions costs. I thought that > they maximized > >> billable hours. > > If we didn't add value, why would we be hired? > > David Shemano >
