I have no "olympic-sized heated sminning pool" and never will have one. I have no BMW, and never will have one.
I practice constitutional law. It is no way to get wealthy. For my 16 briefs in the Supreme Court I have been paid, on average, about $800. I know civil layers who charge that much for an uncontested divorce. I know criminal lawyers who get paid five times that much to defend a serious driving-while-intoxicated case.
There is honor in defending the Constitution in the highest court in the land. That's why a handful of lawyers specialize in such work, despite the low pay. But, trust me, no one has greater disrespect for the rank and file of the legal profession (and for many of its leaders) than we do.
When you think about the many lawyers who are rip-off artists, don't lump all of us in the same pile. We aren't all like that.
I recall a column years ago by Russell Baker about the invasion of Japanese cars in our markets. He noted the fact that they have far less lawyers than we do. He described lawyers as the "sand in the gears of the American economy."
His solution was that we send Japan a lawyer for every 100 cars they send us. Eventually, their economy would be gummed up and ours would be running better, so our cars would compete effectively with theirs. Not a bad suggestion, but I'm sure the World Trade Organization would charge us with "illegal trade practices" or possibly "dumping toxic wastes without a permit" if we tried to implement the idea.
Congressman Billybob