How to be a Scamblogger

I rarely read OutsideTheLawSchoolScam, even though it is far better than anything that the now-defunct "professor" wrote on his blog (where is your beloved professor now that he wrote his book?).

Anyway, there was a fun little article on there called "How to Be a Scamblogger."  I just started reading, and when I got to this part, I could not really get myself to read any further:

or staggering off to a doc review gig in a windowless basement.  If you work at the diner, you will hide from all of your co-workers any details from the last four years of your life.  This is important, otherwise the mark of shame—your law degree—will cause everyone to question your place in the world.  You will become a suspect—Did you get disbarred? Did you even pass the bar?  Are you just dumb?—and you may get fired for being someone other than who they thought you were. 

If you head off to a doc review gig, stop by the Starbucks for your fuel.  You will point and click for eight or ten hours straight while a taskmaster monitors the speed of your progress.  At least the stomach-churning 24-ounce coffee will provide you with a good excuse for a bathroom run.  You will have to run.

First, I don't get the aversion to working in a basement.  Every person who complains about doc review whines about working in a dark basement.  What's so horrible about working in the dark to scambloggers?  First, many probably live in their parents basements.  Others spend so much time blogging and whining on the internet that you can rest assured that they are not outside.  The basement bit has to end.  Nobody feels sorry for a person because they work in the dark.  Plenty of people work in dark places.  I have traveled around the world and have seen some really awful working conditions -- believe me, there are MANY people who would LOVE the opportunity to make $10-30 an hour (whatever doc review pays, and most is well above $10), and be able to live the lifestyle that many scambloggers complain about.  Of course, I ask myself, "how many scambloggers have independently traveled outside of the US?" (Western Europe barely counts, neither does Canada or an all-inclusive in Cancun/Puerto Villarta).  I imagine the number is quite low (especially for those who live on Long Island).

But, I did read further.  A little bit further:

Debt collectors will call.  Let the programmed message go to your voice mail.  Fill out your deferment forms, as you do every six months, and watch your debt continue to increase like one of those national debt counters you see in Times Square. 

Debt collectors should not be calling if you signed up for IBR and stayed current with your payments.  It is when you let your loans go into default that debt collectors will call.

Think.  You know that a ten-dollar-an-hour job 40-hours a week will do nothing but trigger your full student loan payments, and it will cause the state to drop you from Medicaid.

This is ludicrous.  This is why scambloggers do not get much respect from me.  Gross exaggerations.  Below is the IBR chart that states how much you can make and what you need to pay.



Even with a family of 1, you can make $30,000 a year and pay $171 a month.  How is that not manageable?  If you are married, the amounts are more generous.  And if you have children, you are golden.  Of course the "professor" or the anti-law-school kiddos don't mention this tidbit.  Instead, IBR is toted as something devious.  And, if you are single and make $70,000 a year, which is FAR more than $10 an hour, you can STILL pay a cap of $671.

Also, if the writer is so concerned about finances, he/she should not be stopping at Starbucks every morning before work.  This is an obvious mistake when one is living frugally.

If you head off to a doc review gig, stop by the Starbucks for your fuel. 

Everyone knows by now that Starbucks overcharges for coffee.  If this is how you spent your student loans in college/law school you should really consider spending your adult money in a better way.  I used to know law students who would stop at these places every day before school.  If they had just made it at home and brought it with them they would have saved $100's of dollars.  Had they invested or saved that money, or not taken out loans for it in the first place, well, you get the idea.

Mr. Infinity, J.D. is a graduate of a law school in the New York area and is traveling in Egypt, Israel, and The Netherlands before taking the New York Bar exam and moving to the west coast.