3 ms·

Hmm. It's a bit suspicious that communism/socialism isn't part of the argument here. Seems pretty obvious to me that in a free market, doctors would always be

by Tycho 12y ago

Hmm. It's a bit suspicious that communism/socialism isn't part of the argument here. Seems pretty obvious to me that in a free market, doctors would always be highly paid as they take years to train and everyone, rich or poor, needs them. But in a non-free market where they can't demand their true price, who would want to be a doctor? I'd expect that is a much bigger factor towards it being low status than the fact that it's female dominated.

Steuard 12y ago
Russia hasn't been communist in that sense for decades. There are plenty of professions there that have become exceedingly wealthy in that time, but doctors have not. So to make your case, you'd need to demonstrate 1) that specific ongoing regulatory burdens in Russia have served to suppress physician pay, and 2) that the persistence of those particular burdens in Russia's era of deregulation is not linked to gender bias. Your "seems pretty obvious to me" is <em>only</em> valid if you assume a priori that there are no distortions to the pure, free market outcome due to irrationality on the part of market participants. Systematic gender bias would be a clear example of irrationality (which I assume you'd agree with even if you didn't believe it were actually at work here). You may not mean it this way, but your phrasing sounds to me like you're assuming your conclusion.
- Tycho 12y ago
  Russia hasn't been communist for a while but almost all the doctors are still state employees. As for distortions, can you think of any other cases where the distortion is massive and the situation doesn't involve government subsidies? Regardless, I'm not going to go digging around for evidence. My point is that the post above and the linked article did not even address the socialism aspect, which is a huge warning flag.

3 ms·

Hmm. It's a bit suspicious that communism/socialism isn't part of the argument here. Seems pretty obvious to me that in a free market, doctors would always be

by Tycho 12y ago

Steuard 12y ago
Russia hasn't been communist in that sense for decades. There are plenty of professions there that have become exceedingly wealthy in that time, but doctors have not. So to make your case, you'd need to demonstrate 1) that specific ongoing regulatory burdens in Russia have served to suppress physician pay, and 2) that the persistence of those particular burdens in Russia's era of deregulation is not linked to gender bias. Your "seems pretty obvious to me" is <em>only</em> valid if you assume a priori that there are no distortions to the pure, free market outcome due to irrationality on the part of market participants. Systematic gender bias would be a clear example of irrationality (which I assume you'd agree with even if you didn't believe it were actually at work here). You may not mean it this way, but your phrasing sounds to me like you're assuming your conclusion.
- Tycho 12y ago
  Russia hasn't been communist for a while but almost all the doctors are still state employees. As for distortions, can you think of any other cases where the distortion is massive and the situation doesn't involve government subsidies? Regardless, I'm not going to go digging around for evidence. My point is that the post above and the linked article did not even address the socialism aspect, which is a huge warning flag.