Sorry. You're right, dang, I could have done better. I was not intending to name-call; to me, the entire comment was wrong and I posted a curt reaction. I'll

Sorry. You're right, dang, I could have done better. I was not intending to name-call; to me, the entire comment was wrong and I posted a curt reaction. I'll provide more info here: "The level of legitimacy and respect that doctors and hospitals currently have is far too high..." Ask any young doctor in the US whether their field has a lot of "respect". Medical residents work 80-100 hours per week in windowless, flourescently lit rooms, of which 40-60 hours is often spent doing clerical work at sub-minimum-wage to service private insurance and EMR overlords. Patients regularly tell these same doctors they don't trust them, don't respect them, think they're wrong, want to see the "real" doctor, can prove how wrong they are with WebMD, etc. My spouse is now doing her 13th and 14th year of post-secondary training toward the goal of being a specialized surgeon. She has done hundreds of successful surgeries/procedures already and saved countless lives. Yet, she is burnt out, and often ends her workdays completely destroyed by the humiliation of being a cog in the hospital machine. She is not alone; physician depression and suicide is at all-time highs. "... and hinges on branding and the exclusivity of becoming a doctor." Like I said, she is on her 13th and 14th year of post secondary training. Aside from this being a massive time investment, it also cost her dollars she didn't have (no support from parents) on order of $300k in post-secondary education, just in tuition. If becoming a doctor is "exclusive" and confers a "brand", I'd say the exclusivity is "extreme passion for helping humans at great personal sacrifice and cost", and the conferred "brand" is that you are allowed to practice medicine, at all. "Once all of this data becomes available, it will be obvious how worthless and expensive most medical treatments really are." Medicine -- and the tireless and ethical work of thousands of well-trained and professional doctors -- saves countless, countless lives every single day. Modern medical treatments are not "worthless" and your comment is honestly insulting to how effective and life-saving many treatments are. I think this part of your comment is what got the rise out of me: spreading this kind of misinformation is the closest thing HN commenting gets to "malpractice". Society should respect and pay doctors much more for the sacrifice they put toward this profession. Patients should respect doctors a lot more for the benefit they provide society. Hospitals should give doctors a better work environment. Doctors are not perfect, nor is medicine. But to think the root cause of problems in the present medical system is an undeserving respect for doctors and modern medical treatments expresses a profound ignorance of reality. The original comment is so wrong that it truly stunned me into an uncharacteristically curt ad hominem response, for which I apologize.