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You know who also works hard? Juanita the single mom illegal immigrant who works one job in the chicken factory during the day and another cleaning motel rooms

by roel_v 10y ago

You know who also works hard? Juanita the single mom illegal immigrant who works one job in the chicken factory during the day and another cleaning motel rooms in the evening to feed her 4 children, and still barely scrapes by. How much status does she have? I'm not dismissing how much doctors study, or how hard they work (outside of GP's and some specialties like dermatology). Many of my friends and family are doctors. While I agree that I might have phrased my comment a bit more carefully, it's awfully lazy to just conclude from what I said as 'doctors are only after the money'. My real point was - being a doctor no longer (by itself) makes one an intellectual. Knowing quite a lot of doctors myself, I can tell from firsthand experience that many of them are just as (un)informed and (dumb|smart) as the, say, smartest 1/3th of the population. Doctors have lots of highly specialized knowledge, yes; that doesn't make them better on issues that go beyond medical technicalities than a mathematician or lawyer.

naveen99 10y ago
As a doctor, you are partially right. There are some doctors who look at their job as technicians for money. However there are some who really do go out of their way and give a 100% at the loss of their own family. But, probably so do some politicians... i agree with your point, that people's qualifications in one field don't necessary entitle them to a respect from authority in another field. tbe reason they are asking for doctors help in this is, to reduce the political fallout from people who respond to authority. They may as well also ask for help from teachers, firefighters, priests, airplane pilots (I believe Air Force even uses methamphetamines) ...
digler999 10y ago
you seem to be garnering a bunch of hostile responses, so I want to say I agree with you. And I think a lot of their "prestigious education" is somewhat "prestige theater". I believe it's artificial scarcity, either to keep the prestige high, or (somewhat cynically) to keep wages high. Yes, there has to be a rigorous QA process to get your medical license and keep practicing. That's already covered by a state board of medical examiners. Where I think the artificial scarcity comes in is medical schools. There shouldn't be this "interview" process and excessive scrutiny, 6-figure tuitions, and do-or-die levels of pressure to simply learn how to practice medicine. I think this manufactures prestige. There should be enough medical schools for virtually anyone who wants to get in. If idiots go they will flunk out at exam time. No need to screen them at the door. No need to ensure they have "straight-A's". What they need is the willingness to learn. It should be "to be a doctor, you need to learn topics {A,B,....Z}, and once you do, and demonstrate that to the board, you are a dr." You should be able to start out emptying bedpans and have a ladder you can climb to get to physician. I can't think of someone who would make a better dr than one who has already worked 10 years in a hospital. Go from orderly/CNA, to nurse, to practitioner, to dr. And structure the education to work around this! Once you get to nurse, allow a 3 day-work, 2day school schedule. Even if it takes you 8 years, you have an MD with basically an entire clinical rotation completed. And (theoretically) no debt! Now this person doesn't need a $200k salary to pay back their tuition loans. Ultimately this could lower medical costs for everyone.

by roel_v 10y ago

naveen99 10y ago

As a doctor, you are partially right. There are some doctors who look at their job as technicians for money. However there are some who really do go out of their way and give a 100% at the loss of their own family. But, probably so do some politicians... i agree with your point, that people's qualifications in one field don't necessary entitle them to a respect from authority in another field. tbe reason they are asking for doctors help in this is, to reduce the political fallout from people who respond to authority. They may as well also ask for help from teachers, firefighters, priests, airplane pilots (I believe Air Force even uses methamphetamines) ...

digler999 10y ago

you seem to be garnering a bunch of hostile responses, so I want to say I agree with you. And I think a lot of their "prestigious education" is somewhat "prestige theater". I believe it's artificial scarcity, either to keep the prestige high, or (somewhat cynically) to keep wages high. Yes, there has to be a rigorous QA process to get your medical license and keep practicing. That's already covered by a state board of medical examiners. Where I think the artificial scarcity comes in is medical schools. There shouldn't be this "interview" process and excessive scrutiny, 6-figure tuitions, and do-or-die levels of pressure to simply learn how to practice medicine. I think this manufactures prestige. There should be enough medical schools for virtually anyone who wants to get in. If idiots go they will flunk out at exam time. No need to screen them at the door. No need to ensure they have "straight-A's". What they need is the willingness to learn. It should be "to be a doctor, you need to learn topics {A,B,....Z}, and once you do, and demonstrate that to the board, you are a dr." You should be able to start out emptying bedpans and have a ladder you can climb to get to physician. I can't think of someone who would make a better dr than one who has already worked 10 years in a hospital. Go from orderly/CNA, to nurse, to practitioner, to dr. And structure the education to work around this! Once you get to nurse, allow a 3 day-work, 2day school schedule. Even if it takes you 8 years, you have an MD with basically an entire clinical rotation completed. And (theoretically) no debt! Now this person doesn't need a $200k salary to pay back their tuition loans. Ultimately this could lower medical costs for everyone.