Hacker News Reader

Comment by Calavar | Hacker News Reader

This gets said a lot and it kind of irks me. (I am a physician.)

US software devs also make 2x what their European colleagues do, but that never gets called out as bloat. Plus US software devs make that 2x pay without taking our additional loans for medical school at the rate of $75k per year or doing years of low pay residency where their salary doesn’t give them the means to pay off those loans.

View on HN

> US software devs also make 2x what their European colleagues do, but that never gets called out as bloat.

Of course it does. And it gets acted on. Every major corporation in America has explored or implemented moving to European or other foreign developers to save costs.

Developers also don’t have the advantage of a trade group that prevents this practice, requires particular education or limits the number of people allowed to get that education.

Right - but the big difference is that the received wisdom for healthcare is that the higher cost in the US is an unfathomable mystery and/or due to "waste". If you said "writing software is more expensive in the US because software engineers there have higher salaries" everyone one would nod their head in agreement.

Don't forget the insurance, plus the hospital has costs that must be paid for too. A surgery with _just_ the surgeon and no support staff isn't one I'd want to be in.

(Not in the medical field at all)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com