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Comment by throwaway1979 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway1979

A quote comes to mind ... Capitalism is the greatest system we know of for creating weath. It is also one of the worst systems for distributing weath.

It seems we are coming to the point where automation has significantly reduced the need for labor in producing basic commodities. It is particularly challenging when one has to advise college bound students as to what subjects offer a rewarding career. The essay speaks highly of the wages in the medical profession ... I think that part of the essay was misinformed. I don't know any medical professional who is not independently weathy and can get by on their salaries. They have massive loans to pay and if they have their own practice, they have to deal with TONS of crap .. insurance, marketing, and so on.

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> Capitalism is the greatest system we know of for creating weath. It is also one of the worst systems for distributing weath.

This is an oxymoron. "Wealth" is just stuff. Loaves of bread. Cars. iPhones. TV shows. If you create stuff but just keep it in your warehouse, it's going to go moldy and you're going to lose money. You have to distribute it to make money.

Money itself is of no value. You can't eat dollars, and mine don't sing or dance to entertain me. I suppose you could burn them for heat, if you have actual paper dollars :-)

I sometimes wonder if the state of many MDs finances isn't the result of their own egos rather than any larger failing of "the system".

Most of my friends who became MDs gave almost zero thought to what they were paying for school. They also took on huge amounts of credit card debt while in school trying to live like doctors before they were doctors. Being in a half-decent pre-med or med school entitled them to ridiculous credit card offers. In their minds they were all "roughing it" by driving their parents' hand-me-down Volvos, but in reality they all had new clothes and expensive computers.

When it comes to school, most of them never looked at how much someone graduating from institution X will earn vs. the cost. They all simply wanted to go to Penn or Harvard or Hopkins. If offered a full-ride at a second or third tier institution, but no ride at a top tier school, they all took the no ride option (with one exception, and he's a very well paid anesthesiologist who came out with very modest debt).

Can I tell you how many times I've looked at what school my personal physician went to? Zero.

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