<p>There is a job market for JDs from “good programs,” too, and the jobs people get pay enough to retire their (admittedly) serious debt. You can’t generalize so much. Princeton economics PhDs are getting good academic jobs (and good non-academic jobs if they want them); University of North Texas sociology PhDs not so much. Similarly, Harvard law students may borrow a lot to go to law school, but they can easily make enough during law school to pay for their last year, and most of them get jobs when they graduate that pay enough to retire the debt within 3-4 years. That’s not so true at 5th-tier law schools, though.</p>