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> I cannot, for one, think of a solid justification. Really ? Any person without a severe physical disabilities can be a street cleaner - you need very low inc

> I cannot, for one, think of a solid justification. Really ? Any person without a severe physical disabilities can be a street cleaner - you need very low incentives to generate people capable. Surgeons take like a decade of training and a small % of the population is even capable of becoming one and there's a demand for their skills. Software developers create output that potentially has a very non-linear return. Few 1000 people can create software used by billions daily. A few people can develop software that manages billions of $ of assets.

pineaux 5y ago
actually, statistics prove you wrong. Cuba pays surgeons roughly the same as streetcleaners but they have twice the amount of specualists per 100.000, compared to the united states (1). If you look at countries that have (almost) free education (like cuba), you see that these countries have similar numbers of physicians/specialists per 100.000 people. These facts tend to show that the main factor for having "enough" surgeons has nothing or little to do with pay and mostly with opportunity (free) and capability. As an interesting sidenote, I'd like to point out that the high salaries of surgeons in the US help to prevent people from going into surgery. Another point is that if you go into surgery for the money, I think you have the wrong incentives to be the best surgeon. (1) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.SAOP.P5?view=map&year=2014 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.SAOP.P5?view=map...
- moonchrome 5y ago
  Haha I've lived in a post communist country - if you believe for one second that a surgeon and street cleaner have the same compensation you are extremely naive. The artificial restrictions on direct pay just get transformed into other things. I've listened to Yoel Romero talk about their Olympic program, how the children in the camp would get more food if they performed better in training and they would pit each other aginst one another to promote competition. You think the kids participate because they wanted to compete in the Olympics ? He could have just cleaned the streets and make the same as a surgeon...

pineaux 5y ago

actually, statistics prove you wrong. Cuba pays surgeons roughly the same as streetcleaners but they have twice the amount of specualists per 100.000, compared to the united states (1). If you look at countries that have (almost) free education (like cuba), you see that these countries have similar numbers of physicians/specialists per 100.000 people. These facts tend to show that the main factor for having "enough" surgeons has nothing or little to do with pay and mostly with opportunity (free) and capability. As an interesting sidenote, I'd like to point out that the high salaries of surgeons in the US help to prevent people from going into surgery. Another point is that if you go into surgery for the money, I think you have the wrong incentives to be the best surgeon. (1) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.SAOP.P5?view=map&year=2014 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.SAOP.P5?view=map...

moonchrome 5y ago
Haha I've lived in a post communist country - if you believe for one second that a surgeon and street cleaner have the same compensation you are extremely naive. The artificial restrictions on direct pay just get transformed into other things. I've listened to Yoel Romero talk about their Olympic program, how the children in the camp would get more food if they performed better in training and they would pit each other aginst one another to promote competition. You think the kids participate because they wanted to compete in the Olympics ? He could have just cleaned the streets and make the same as a surgeon...