I went to see a lawyer today regarding the immigration status of my partner. It was a fact that I knew more about my situation than the lawyer did, because I had spent many hours preparing and researching the available online sources, although she had not. She was surprised that my knowledge exceeded her own, but nevertheless charged $180 for a thirty-minute consultation and, upon learning that I was a computer programmer, asked me to help her fix her computer for free. I stared at her without saying anything, thinking, is my knowledge worthless, and yours worth $180 for less than an hour spent telling me less than what I already know?
The high status of lawyers in our society is a symptom of our society's decline. Lawyers do not create anything. The outcome of legal cases hinges not upon Truth but upon points of law, and bad laws are defended with just the same vigor as good ones. It is often the case that the client with the deepest pockets wins. These are some of the reasons I did not choose to become a lawyer. Several of my friends from school, the best and the brightest, became lawyers instead of scientists, inventors, or engineers. Who can blame them? Their decision was in their obvious self-interest. Is it proper to advise a young person to consider a creative or productive occupation when they can become lawyers instead and never have to worry about updating their skills or learning new ones?
For my part, I have had to learn a new computer technology every two to three years, at a minimum, and even so, many jobs are not available to me. I have experience in technologies that have fallen out of favor. It was a mistake entering the field of computer technology in the first place, when law and medicine pay huge salaries. Despite what some claim, law does not change very much year to year, and neither does our knowledge concerning the human body, but computer languages rise and fall like the tide. I've learned a dozen different languages in my career, many of them worthless now.
Ill-considered laws are a burden upon the people. I feel that there are too many laws, and many of them are intrusive and unnecessary and not founded upon good reasoning. I cannot afford much in the way of lawyers. Over three hundred years ago, my ancestors came to America as immigrants in search of freedom, but America has changed and is no longer hospitable to immigrants for a variety of reasons, chief among them the high rate of unemployment combined with the influx of undocumented workers from countries south of our border. I foresee myself having to leave America in search of the freedom to live with my partner without persecution from the government. I hope to postpone the severance as long as can be, but I see few other options available to me.
I was glad that I did not offer any help to the lawyer with her technical problem. It is contrary to my nature not to offer to help, but I would have regretted it for however long it took me to forget the ill-considered generosity. One thing I have learned in this life is that helping good people is good, but helping bloodsucking parasites is evil, because they will take what is offered and think one a fool for having offered a service without compensation, which they never do.
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