Oops

At an NFL-sanctioned rookie symposium, former player Cris Carter advised that rookies take certain steps to avoid criminal prosecution. The NFL has since condemned the comments, except they were apparently posted on the NFL website for a while.

I appreciated this take on cultural appropriation.

More people are turning on Black Lives Matter.

I've thought about hopping on an Amtrak or European train for like a week and just exploring some new part of the country/world. This person takes riding the rails to a new level.

The New York Times is once again speaking up about law school debt (this time in an op-ed). My main issue with this piece is that I'm not sure law schools are in the best position to do anything about the problem, so why charge them with doing so? If you're a law school, your primary goal is educating students to the point of getting a law degree (it's not even necessarily educating them enough to pass the bar exam, as the prevalence of bar prep courses might show). But unlike maybe medical school (or dentistry school or even auto mechanic school), law school isn't vocational school. I continue to think that the answer is underwriting. Show up to the bank with your acceptance letter, any offers of scholarship, your credit history (which should play a minor role), and something resembling a career plan, and they get to decide whether throwing money at you (and that school) is a good investment. I don't think the federal government should be subsidizing lawyers, and just so it doesn't seem as if I'm closing the door behind us, I am confident that such a system would have provided student loans at the same or better terms to us.

I'm still trying to figure out how to feel about the Ashley Madison breach. While there are obviously privacy considerations and breach of contract claims, there are also stories like this, which make me sad for the family but happy that they get to get out of a bad situation and move towards a better one. Also, karma.

Responses:

1. It seems like an even-handed analysis of the problem, and even if we can quibble about the statistics, I think there are some good solutions and proposals in there.

2. I haven't seen it, but it's interesting. Soon it will be our ice cream maker, though!

3. It's interesting how many people feel the need to justify their compensation. That said, other than some of the grad students, they seem to be paid relatively well on the whole. They seem to be happy with "enough" rather than maximizing their earning potential. And some of them have a more than reasonable amount of faith that their employers will thank them for their modesty later.

4. I agree with everything he said in that article.

5. One of my - our - favorite pastimes!

6. It appears that we are getting a mandoline sooner rather than later.

7. I'll be sure to take some pictures if/when I go to the Alps!

R2R:

3. There's a fine line between letting kids move at their own pace and locking kids into levels of achievement early on (which is how they do education in a lot of places around the world). It just seems like most of the resources in low-performing schools are aimed at social/behavioral control and education to the lowest common denominator. I'm also not sure that the social aspect of education needs to be connected to the academic one - you can have kids together in school so they learn how to act in social settings, but individualize the academic side. The internet and online learning might play a role in reducing cost as well.

5. It's half station wagon, half SUV, and all awesome!

7. I would like to compare success rates and expected annual income, but perhaps it's another pursuit (like Ph.D.) that would be best with a patron.

R2R2R:

2. I definitely remember people in our class banking on loan forgiveness and not even going for OGI or other non-qualifying jobs. It wasn't all easy - many of them couldn't find jobs because everyone was looking to the public and non-profit sectors in light of the layoffs in biglaw. In any case, the people in the article you cited said they only chose to go because they were counting on loan forgiveness.

R2R2R2R:

6. That was supposed to be a "wouldn't," not a would. (It has been corrected.) I was specifically thinking of a South Park episode, though, where Kyle's dad buys a Prius and they move to San Francisco, where people are so into themselves for driving hybrids that they create smug, which (like smog) threatens the environment.

R2R2R2R2R2R:

3. I'm not entirely sure how Verizon will do it, but let's just look at the timeline. Between now and when my old upgrade (your new upgrade) kicks in, your phone will be "locked" into the current plan, same as mine (for the next almost 2 years or so). We can switch to the new plan (at slightly reduced cost), but if we do then we have to pay $20/month extra per phone that is still locked (which, as you recall, will still be less than what we are currently paying). When we get to December 2015, if we still have our old plan, then the upgrade will kick in and you can upgrade, I think under the same terms as before ($200 for the iPhone, 2-year commitment). But if we have the new plan, then $20/month will drop off our phone bill, and you will only be able to buy an unlocked phone at the unsubsidized price ($649). That said, Verizon will offer an installment plan of $20/month (in addition to the $200 initial fee) even on the new plan, so you don't have to pay up front if you don't want to. But if you choose the installment plan, you can't upgrade or leave the plan until the phone is paid off. If we keep upgrading our phones every 2 years or so, it works out. I don't really know what the math looks like if we buy phones more often, but if we buy phones less often, then the new plan I think works better because we won't be paying the inflated phone service bill that subsidizes phone purchases, but instead a smaller bill that covers service only.

B