Practice Management

CNNMoney reviewed what it might cost to build the $6 Million Man, who was played on TV by Lee Majors in 1974 in today's dollars.  It is a strange comparison because there really was not a $6 Million Man in 1974.  There was only just an estimate of what it would take to put Lee Major's back together as one if it were possible.  And, let us face the fact that in 1974 we all thought $6 million was a heck of a lot of money.  As frivolous as money has become today (even though we do not have it) $6 million seems like chump change almost.

Nonetheless, in 2008 inflation adjusted dollars, Lee Majors would be the $26 Million Man.  But, the real cost of a modern-day cyborg in 2008 would be quite different, according to Greg Chirikjian, professor of mechanical engineering at The Johns Hopkins Institute and a big fan of the original TV show.  According to Chirikjian, research and development costs to design a bionic man would be $50 million to $100 million today. But with a completed design, production costs would only be several hundred thousand dollars per person.

What I find interesting about this discussion is that in 1986, for example, an attorney was allowed to be paid $2,500.00 in legal fees through the Chapter 13 Plan to represent a family in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy in the Eastern District of Texas.  Today, even with the extraordinary new requirements to which an attorney must plan and respond, that fee is now only $3,000.00.  Considering the inflation adjusted costs only that fee should likely be about $9,000.00 today.  It is not.  And, if you consider the additional work, it should be higher still.  Judges say that consumers cannot afford these fees over a 5 year period.  However, they were able to pay the equivalent in 1986, and a larger percentage of bankruptcies survived to completion at that time.

And, I am not sure this analysis is not true for most practice areas.