Convenient misdirections
For life and death decisions, there's not enough room
in the top five percentile to put everyone that has to
make them.
Why not?
Here's another rebuttal: those guys that pick up the garbage
and fix the sewers have the lives of far more people in their
hands than the average airline pilot, let alone doctor; without
those services thousands of people's lives and health are at
risk - basically, anyone who lives in a city owes a lot to garbage
men and sanitation workers. According to your logic, they should
get 200K/ann too.
Nope.
You missed years of training and dedication.
I can take any random homeless person off the street,
give him $10 a day, and have him throw garbage cans
at a truck.
The driver will get paid more, of course, but again,
given a few weeks of training driving a big truck,
I've filled the job.
So, go back to the SHORT list of people who qualify
based on my premise. That is ability, dedication,
many years of education combined with an immediate impact
on people's lives.
Doctors.
Airline pilots.
Feel free to add the remaining few, and be sure to
note their income level.
Ok, back to what you would consider reasonable.
Give me a $ amount.
And note, I call major BS on $200K per year equaling
"extreme wealth". In this country, $40K is barely
enough to scrape by, raising 2 kids. Some may claim
the to be middle class, but only on the flyover areas
of the county. Certainly not in the NE US where I live.
Here is an article that claims middle class spans
$31K-$76K. Of the people in this middle class,
20% have a college degree and 1.5% have a PHD.
[link|http://www.hiringnetwork.com/common/article88.html|http://www.hiringnet...on/article88.html]
Note: These were 2001 dollars so I'd adjust it up
a bit for inflation.
So at $80K or so we have entry-level well off. Which
leaves a large range up to rich people who own profitable
companies, to very rich people who live off of trust funds.
Again, all based where you live.
In NYC, middle class is up to $250K per year.
[link|http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/press/nyt/sr051897.html|http://tenant.net/Al...nyt/sr051897.html]
$200K is NOT extremely wealthy.
So, back to: What is reasonable?
Is $150K reasonable?
So the difference is $50K per Doctor.
According to this:
[link|http://dbapps.ama-assn.org/aps/amahg.htm|http://dbapps.ama-assn.org/aps/amahg.htm]
there are about 690,000 in the US.
690,000 x 50,000 = 34.5 billion dollars.
This is about 1/3 the error rate of Medicare and
Medicaid mis-billings.
[link|http://www.health-itworld.com/enews/03-15-2005_545.html|http://www.health-it...-15-2005_545.html]
It obvious does not scratch the surface of the total
health care industry cost.
Oh, I know, knock off another $50K. That'll fix
the problem for sure!
You have found a scape goat and you simply won't let
go.
