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04-30-2012, 07:11 AM #1Disabled
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The professional middle class bubble is bursting
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2416390/
If you’re a smart kid who wants to work hard and do well, one path to success has always been clear. You went to university, then chose a high-status profession and got your ticket punched. Law and medicine were tops. Six-figure incomes, nice houses and private ski clubs were all but guaranteed. If you were less bookish but had good sales skills, you could go into real estate, rack up huge commissions in a booming market and buy yourself a shiny BMW in no time.
Those days are over. The Great Reset has hit the professional classes too. Young professionals are facing a painful double squeeze. The cost of a degree has gone way up, and the economic benefit it confers has gone way down. Think twice before you encourage your daughter to go to law or med school, especially if she’ll have to borrow heavily to do it. On top of that, these young professionals are starting their working lives later than ever before. By the time they are credentialed and hit the work force, they’re in their early 30s.
“There’s a real disconnect between the perception and the reality,” says one senior lawyer. “You have to be pretty creative when you’re thinking of law as a career choice.” Translation: If you think you’re going to land a $100,000 starting job on Bay Street, you’d better have Plan B. It’s more realistic to aim for association or government work – where salaries are a lot lower. (By the way, you’ll have to do your articling in Sudbury.) And even if you start out in the big time, the ladder to partnership is being pulled up. These days, it can take 10 years to become an equity partner in a major firm – if you make it. Most don’t.
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04-30-2012, 11:16 PM #2Web Hosting Master
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I agree that salaries/opportunities in law are significantly down.
Medicine, however, still seems to be going strong.
-mike
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04-30-2012, 11:18 PM #3Retired Moderator
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05-01-2012, 01:30 AM #4Web Hosting Master
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What happens when Watson does to finance?
I believe Computer science and engineering will continue to thrive. Finance will hold strong, but mundane tasks like accounting or underwriting will be automated.
Citibank just hired Watson.
Even in medicine, mundane tasks like analysing x-rays which was outsourced to India will be insourced back to computer image analysis.
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04-30-2012, 11:21 PM #5Keep rockin' in the free world
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04-30-2012, 11:30 PM #6Web Hosting Master
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05-01-2012, 12:26 AM #7Newbie
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If I had to do it all over, I would do something in the medical field. Then maybe consider computer stuff.
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05-01-2012, 05:17 AM #8Disabled
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i guess you havent read the full article.
it explains that medicine entrees are joining workforce around early 30s at least, and 180,000 in debt.
moreover, due to old doctors not retiring and governments cutting back on healthcare, less and less positions are opening.
but its inherent capitalist mechanic - eventually it would reduce and reduce everything. more profits, less jobs.
in the end no field can be immune to the same effect. its a systemic mechanism.
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05-01-2012, 10:30 PM #9Web Hosting Master
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I read the article.
Medicine has its downsides, but it is still very lucrative. Most of my MD friends have specialized and are earning low-ish-to-mid-ish six figures.
Medicine is not perfect, but it is definitely doing *far better* than law. All of my recent grad MD friends are fairly quickly paying off their student loan debt and living pretty well; my recent grad lawyer friends are without work.
I would simply strongly disagree that medicine is hurting as a career, at least in the U.S..
Edit: Specialization is really key. A primary care doctor is definitely not going to do as well typically.
-mike
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05-01-2012, 11:59 PM #10
Absolutely correct
Take a look at the rate the end customer pays (even with insurance) for medical services. This hasn't gone DOWN, it's gone UP since the insurance bailout bill was passed.
There's no doubt, the medical profession is the next 'lawyer' field, with insanely high salaries. If it's not there now, it will be in just a few years.Tom Whiting, WHMCS Guru extraordinaire
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05-02-2012, 05:10 AM #11Disabled
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05-01-2012, 05:21 AM #12Web Hosting Master
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Even internship at law firms pay like 100,000+... >.>
Clearly the bubble didn't burst there yet.I have no sig to spam.
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05-01-2012, 05:39 AM #13Disabled
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05-01-2012, 06:03 AM #14Web Hosting Master
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I read your excerpt. (edit: now skimmed article. lol)
I know what they're saying. I'm still feeling the new rates of "out of university debt" personally quite well. I myself paid roughly 100k in tuition. Jobs are harder to actually land as well.
But just saying. With salaries as is in law firms and few other industries, graduating and making a 6 figure salary isn't just a dream.
100k for a intern at a law firm isn't even considered a prestigious one. It's like below avg... Even if you don't make the cream of the crop, you aren't exactly future-less. The article rather over-exaggerates imo.I have no sig to spam.
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05-01-2012, 07:38 AM #15
As does unity, quite often.
I will admit that the middle class is dropping a bit, but that's only natural. We're going through a worldwide monetary crisis. Those with money will rightly hold on to it. Those without it (middle, poor class) will lose it unless they adapt and adjust.Tom Whiting, WHMCS Guru extraordinaire
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05-01-2012, 12:08 PM #16Disabled
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give 5 years and you wont even see the numbers you are rarely seeing now. it is always like that.
millions of new students all will push to that field since others have shrunk.
and since jobs are declining in general, and population is growing, that is the eventual result in whichever geographical locale you go.
you think. after you live through life a while more, and see as much as unity, you will think a whole lot different.
I will admit that the middle class is dropping a bit, but that's only natural.
ill let you in on the reason - its engineering. the more you optimize systems, the less manpower you need in all kinds of systems. from manufacturing to law, from i.t. to psychology. it does not matter what is the field.
my education has been on a field which seeks to improve the efficiency of all kinds of systems, reducing the costs and therefore manpower too.
Those without it (middle, poor class) will lose it unless they adapt and adjust.
all the while, the people in wall street water ski behind 7 yachts, and those who hold their leash decide their future with that middle class's hard earned, but not given money.
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05-01-2012, 07:42 AM #17Hello World
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05-01-2012, 08:14 AM #18Tom Whiting, WHMCS Guru extraordinaire
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05-01-2012, 01:41 PM #19Hello World
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05-01-2012, 11:28 PM #20Web Hosting Master
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No way medicine is not a good career choice. Even within medicine, there are so many specilizations. Genome and bio-statisticians are paid handsomely.
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05-02-2012, 12:30 AM #21Aspiring Evangelist
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CS is really good if you are near silicon valley.
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