I believe that the answer to that question is "yes". Also, lawyers tend to be very compensated, and DC has a great number of them.
I think it might be more accurate if we subtracted "legal activity" from our GDP calculations rather than adding it, since I think that a large part of what these lawyers do does indeed subtract from our productive capacity.
Even more consternating is to consider that we are producing more lawyers than ever before. We are up to 512,070 lawyers (BLS) right now; looking at the total number of people involved in legal services (judges, paralegals, etc.) for the last ten years:
Series Id: CEU6054110001 |
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| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 963.4 | 963.6 | 963.6 | 963.9 | 962.3 | 980.1 | 980.5 | 971.5 | 957.5 | 958.9 | 961.3 | 960.6 | 965.6 |
| 1995 | 955.7 | 955.0 | 956.0 | 954.4 | 952.3 | 974.0 | 971.7 | 965.9 | 954.0 | 955.2 | 957.5 | 958.9 | 959.2 |
| 1996 | 955.2 | 957.9 | 960.9 | 959.1 | 961.4 | 982.7 | 984.8 | 978.4 | 963.2 | 968.6 | 973.9 | 974.7 | 968.4 |
| 1997 | 972.6 | 973.0 | 976.4 | 978.8 | 979.6 | 1000.3 | 1004.1 | 995.2 | 985.1 | 988.9 | 995.3 | 1000.5 | 987.5 |
| 1998 | 997.4 | 999.8 | 1004.1 | 1006.1 | 1010.4 | 1034.4 | 1040.4 | 1032.9 | 1023.0 | 1030.9 | 1034.7 | 1038.8 | 1021.1 |
| 1999 | 1034.5 | 1037.0 | 1040.1 | 1043.0 | 1044.4 | 1067.5 | 1068.4 | 1060.5 | 1049.7 | 1053.1 | 1058.3 | 1059.9 | 1051.4 |
| 2000 | 1056.6 | 1053.8 | 1054.4 | 1052.0 | 1054.3 | 1084.4 | 1084.1 | 1075.4 | 1064.8 | 1067.3 | 1069.6 | 1072.1 | 1065.7 |
| 2001 | 1068.9 | 1071.2 | 1074.4 | 1074.9 | 1083.4 | 1109.5 | 1110.8 | 1104.2 | 1093.0 | 1097.0 | 1102.4 | 1105.3 | 1091.3 |
| 2002 | 1099.6 | 1099.8 | 1100.8 | 1098.8 | 1106.7 | 1125.9 | 1127.6 | 1122.4 | 1116.3 | 1126.9 | 1129.1 | 1129.6 | 1115.3 |
| 2003 | 1122.8 | 1127.7 | 1130.9 | 1130.5 | 1133.4 | 1152.6 | 1148.6 | 1137.8 | 1129.5 | 1139.8 | 1145.5 | 1142.4 | 1136.8 |
| 2004 | 1131.0 | 1132.3 | 1131.8 | 1134.4 | 1136.9 | 1162.3 | 1163.8 | 1150.2 | 1145.9(p) | 1149.0(p) | |||
| p : preliminary |
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shows that this is a popular and growing field of endeavor.
German economists had their turn in the spotlight during the late 19th and early 20th centuries - they labored long and hard and delivered.........- Communism and National Socialism - the latter of which despite the defeat of its militant form during WWII - survives today throughout 'Old Europe'.
Germany with its 'Worker' councils, high unemployment, extremely low productivity and sclerotic growth rate is viewed as a creditable source of economic 'wisdom' only by economic ignoramouses like Lester Thorow at MIT, J.K. Galbraith, the osssified big-government math modelers at UCLA.
This guy is yet another theoretician trying to give us advice that will drive our economy into the same dead end as Europe.