Friday, August 17, 2012

Why does TV glamorize lawyers over engineers?

The US has an oversupply of lawyers, but a shortage of engineers. Being a lawyer is one of the most boring things you can do for most, while engineering can be exciting and interesting. Yet over many years, TV has shown the lawyers life as exciting, sexy and varied. The other night on "Suits" when someone received good LSAT results, it was greeted by the enthusiasm of someone winning big on a TV game show. "You're going to be a lawyer!" Yet life for lawyers is rarely any more exciting than for accountants. Engineering has more variety and challenge than law, yet I have yet to see a single TV program about engineers. I suspect that this has much to do with the current glut of lawyers and dearth of engineers.