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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 15, 2024

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It would be weird for lawyers to want to create more demand for lawyers?

Yes.

Why are you saying they'd want to create demand for lawyers. Are you suggesting that they personally plan to go into the field? Are you suggesting that they are consciously thinking that more complex laws will raise demand for them?

That might be plausible for some administrative agency workers, but I find that hard to believe in the case of the president, and unlikely in congress. The focus would rather be on their actual incentives: good law (to the extent that they're ethical), and what's politically advantageous (to the extent that they're not).

It turns out, though, that it's politically advantageous to have complex law, because you get lobbied by the big companies that can afford the legal burden for the sake of getting rid of their weaker competition who can't.

Note that that doesn't really depend on whether you're a lawyer. The lobbyists and interest groups will do most of the work of writing the complex law for you.