Would You Pay $250,000 To Get Your Friends' Respect?

This is the question rasied by the article Is Law School a Losing Game? (from the NY Times) The article discusses how law school graduates are having a harder time finding good paying jobs as lawyers. In the last 10-15 years many more students have graduated but law firms have cut their staffs. Some students end up tens of thousands of dollars or even hundred of thousands of dollars in debt to pay for law school. The schools seem to fudge the numbers as to how many of their graduates actually get jobs. Many students don't make anything close to a six-figure salary.

But here is something interesting about one student, who is now $250,000 in debt:

"Mr. Wallerstein, for his part, is not complaining. Once you throw in the intangibles of having a J.D., he says, he is one of law schools' satisfied customers.

"It's a prestige thing," he says. "I'm an attorney. All of my friends see me as a person they look up to. They understand I'm in a lot of debt, but I've done something they feel they could never do and the respect and admiration is important.""

That seems like alot of money to pay to get respect. It just does not seem necessary for the price to be that high.