Last Sunday’s New York Times featured an article by David Segal entitled “Is Law School a Losing Game?“. In the piece, Segal profiles a number of law school graduates whom have been burred in debt, with little to no chance of paying back their debtors. The article is meant to be an exposé on the true value, or lack their of it, of a law school degree.

One recent graduate interviewed was Michael Wallerstein. Wallerstein graduated from Thomas Jefferson law school with a $250,000 debt, and few job prospects. His account of the time he spent at law school is strewn with stories of studies abroad, in Prague and France, and renting of a spacious apartment, all paid for with borrowed money.

However, Wallerstein had no desire to accept a true entry level position, and instead prefers to work temporary jobs and spend time with his fiancée. In fact, Wallerstein’s fiancée does not want to see her husband-to-be accept a “time-gobbling corporate law job.” Why? Because they “like hanging out together” she says.

When confronted with the fact that he could be earning more money if he had kept his job as a research assistant, not to mention be without any outstanding debts, Wallerstein says he’s still happy he went to law school:

It’s a prestige thing. 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.

Wallerstein, a perfect example of the over educated NINJA generation (No Income, No Job, No Assets), says he doesn’t worry about his debt. He ignores creditors, threats of law suits, and updates on his credit score. How does he plan on getting above water? A bailout:

Bank bailouts, company bailouts — I don’t know, we’re the generation of bailouts. And like, this debt of mine is just sort of, it’s a little illusory. I feel like at some point, I’ll negotiate it away, or they won’t collect it.

The complete abrogation of any personal responsibility. Who could have seen this coming? And who could blame Wallerstein? The government has been bailing out companies that are “too big to fail,” why not assume that law school graduates are too big to fail?

Interestingly, the Times piece singles out federally backed student loans as “the gasoline that fuels the system” of massively increasing tuition fees. When consumers, students, are removed from the cost, they borrow with impunity, never stopping to ponder the consequences. Or, students expect their enormous debts to just disappear, courtesy of the tax payer.

How about an article extolling the virtues of a prudent individual, who works hard and saves his money, all to have it stolen by the government to bailout the person who went to law school without the means to pay?

Neatly tucked away in the 2,000 page Obamacare bill was a provision expanding student loans. With the government funding an ever increasing number of students, how long will it be before the government does decide to bailout underwater students?

If people have no “skin in the game,” they have no incentive to chose what would appear to be the common sense solution. If you can go to law school for half a decade, and be bailedout by the poor schlub who chose to go to work, why say no?

When the government bailsout companies that engaged in risky behavior because they are “too big to fail,” they encourage more bad behavior, evidently not just from corporations that are “too big to fail.”