I keep thinking about this part of the text. A person who works in a big law firm earning tons of money may be considered as someone from a higher class. However, there are all these partners and older lawyers who complaint about their lack of freedom and claim that they don’t have a real life.

At the beginning of the semester Eben gave the example of a former student that earned a lot of money and also had a lot of expenses (he was married with children, bought the huge apartment, etc.). He hated his job, but he had to keep it just for the money. According to Tharaud’s view of classes, he would be of a lower class than someone with a job that may not look so “great” according to traditional terms (because of a lower salary for instance) but that has real control over her life.

I relate this with the other part of the text where Tharaud says that: “Most lawyers are like most everyone else–they don’t take the trouble to learn anything other than what puts money into their pockets . . . What happens is, one day the dimwits wake up in a ‘what-is-life-really-about? stupor, but it is too late, it’s already over, so they try to bring you down into their misery.”

I believe that these two parts of the text are very representative of some discussions of the class and also address the fear and anxiety of many of us. Personally, I have thought a lot about these ideas since I read them. I like to believe that I will be able to find the right combination of professional realization with a rewarding personal life. Unfortunately, that goal is far from being easy or even natural, given how this profession works.

-- FranciscoGuzman - 20 Apr 2010