Health Care reform

[silverx2]

Listen champ, I am not comparing the two. I suggested comparing a doctor to a lawyer or another highly educated individual. Had you ACTUALLY read my posts as opposed to just writing that you had, you'd see that. Shall I go back and recap it for you, or can you actually use the scroll key or mouse wheel?

You are trying to compare an enlisted person to a doctor - not I. My only foray into that realm was when I suggested that you actually compare the two EQUALLY by using a West Point grad as a comparison. West Point's admission standards are pretty high, if I am not mistaken. The local enlisting office's standards -- well, not so high. Please compare things in a proper manner rather than just spouting off your patriot-laden rantings without any kind of intelligence to back up your thoughts.

At that point, the med student. If you have just made it to boot camp, all you did was show that you can walk, breathe and sign your name.

Hey ******, maybe you should go back and look at the inital post i was replying to, i never was replying to you, your decided to interject and veer of the topic that i was on. TGLC said that soldiers do not make sacrifices. Which is a very disrespectful thing to say. Maybe you should put down, your dislike of me, and a job i work maybe 4 times a month and look at the bigger picture. A person that has the potential of being killed doing their job sacrifices more then someone that reads books and has to stay up late at night studying. plain and simple.

[TallGuyLittleCar]

TGLC said that soldiers do not make sacrifices.

No, I said no sacrifice is needed to become a soldier. I highlighted become in the original post. I think some soldiers over time make tremendous sacrifices, as do their families. They do this for freedom. The freedom to learn to read.

by signing your name you signed it away for a minimum of 2 years, a med student can drop out whenever they want with no further penalty.

actually you can get out of the military by merely professing your love for Liza Minnelli and showtunes in general.

[hanratty21]

your dislike of me

I don't dislike you. I dislike the way you reply to things without reading what you are actually replying to. I've said this before...reading IS fundamental.

TGLC said that soldiers do not make sacrifices.

Nope. Most certainly did not.

[FlashLackey]

Whoa now. No need to be uncivil. It's only health, life and death, etc. at stake.

I am pretty sure random would disagree with you had his dad lived beyond 45. I am pretty sure ANYONE who needs a doctor would disagree with you once a doctor adds more time to their life. Considering that a medium market weatherman probably makes about 200K per year, I think the doc's salary discussed above doesn't warrant this kind of scrutiny.

I don't know. I thought that Random's story involved his father not being in a position to afford health care that he wanted. So, wouldn't that suggest that he would agree that it would have been in his benefit had they been more affordable? Paying a doctor more doesn't have a 1:1 relationship to how much life they can add for you anyway. At some point, you are just paying more for no additional life. And a high paid doctor isn't help to people that can't afford to pay them.

If doctors salaries are going up each year faster than the rate of inflation, it suggests that they are getting paid more than what the market demand (the people you are referring to who need doctors) would determine. It also suggests that there is room for their salary to go down and still remain competitive with the behavior of salaries for other professions (ie. the same people would still do the same thing they are now at the higher salary).

well the only way to determine that would be to compare the 1970 cost of a procedure or medication available in 1970 to the cost of the same procedure or medication performed today.

Another way would be to simply remove obstructions in the market. Then market demand could more accurately determine how society values those procedures.

No disrespect to those that serve in our armed services, but you just barely have to complete high school to enlist. Not much of a sacrifice is needed at all to become a soldier.

My point is that we can all individually place different values on things for isolated reasons. But, that isn't how prices are determined.

If we lived on a tiny island and depended on soldiers to prevent eminent invasion from a larger island full of cannibals, we might pay them more. Demand drives prices. So, I don't think it's a strong argument to come up with a romanticized description of doctors. A lot of doctors get into it just to make money rather than to help people. Some do it just to make mom and dad happy. I knew a guy trying to become a doctor that was a McDonald's manager and got into trouble because he hit an old lady pulling out of his drive-way one morning. The dumb-ass actually fled the scene... the scene being his own house. Doctors do an important job in our society. But, lets not pretend that they aren't people doing a job for the same reasons everyone has, providing something of value in return for something of value.

and I believe Flashlackey was comparing the fact that at any given point on a day at work a soldier, or a police officer, or a fireman could be killed trying to do thier job.

Indeed. Not trying to add fuel to the fire. In my opinion, having the support and means to end up at a fancy college for 10 years and then a job with a six figure salary is a cake-walk compared to the sacrifices that soldiers and police make. Sacrifice just isn't the exclusive (or even primary) driver of salaries.