GREED!!!

All of civilization was built on greed.

Yog had a wooly mammoth carcass. Gog wanted his own wooly mammoth carcass, but he wanted TWO wooly mammoth carcasses so he'd look better to the ladies. That was greed, because Gog really only needed ONE carcass. So Gog invented a spear so that he could kill more efficiently than with a club.

The invention of the spear led to other inventions and before you know it, civilization was born. All because of greed.

All hail greed!
 
treeguy64 said:
I shake out on the side of condemning most MD's as greedy bastards. My last wife was an RN, my gf is in medical billing. I've seen things up close, and personal.

We talk about the healthcare crisis, yet very few call it like it is: It starts with greedy doctors and hospitals and insurance execs. They're all in bed, together. Talk to an MD for ten minutes, get a bill for $250! GREED!
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Surely you do not think that said doc gets the whole $250? There's his office, his staff, his equipment, licensing, insurance and God knows what all else to pay out of that. Not to mention his educational loans and his years of study. And surely a physician's expertise in saving lives or alleviating suffering is worth as least as much as some guy whose expertise lies in running down a field knocking down as many people as possible or who can hit a ball further and harder than anybody else.

Personally, the biggest gift anyone has ever given me was the gift of walking again -- given to me by an orthopedic surgeon, and to me it was and is priceless. I don't begrudge him a penny of what he got paid for doing that. It would have been cheap at twice the price.
 
I suppose those $25 Tylenols, in the hospital, would also be cheap at twice the price, right? It's all a system set up to extract as much money as possible from a, decidedly, captive audience. Doctors, Big Pharma, the Insurance companies and the business dealings of the Big Hospital world are a shameless exploitation of those unfortunate enough to need any of their services.

I know how much doctors make, after all of the expenses you mentioned, above. I know the doctors who see ten people an hour, six to eight hours a day. The money is obscene, despite all of the supposed miracles they work. And lest anyone forget, for all of the success stories, like yours, medical mistakes kill around 250,000 people a year, every year, in the US.
 
treeguy64 said:
I suppose those $25 Tylenols, in the hospital, would also be cheap at twice the price, right? It's all a system set up to extract as much money as possible from a, decidedly, captive audience. Doctors, Big Pharma, the Insurance companies and the business dealings of the Big Hospital world are a shameless exploitation of those unfortunate enough to need any of their services.

I know how much doctors make, after all of the expenses you mentioned, above. I know the doctors who see ten people an hour, six to eight hours a day. The money is obscene, despite all of the supposed miracles they work. And lest anyone forget, for all of the success stories, like yours, medical mistakes kill around 250,000 people a year, every year, in the US.
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In the1950s, long before big malpractice lawsuits, a sloppy hospital and sloppier doctor killed my toddler-age younger sister by giving her the wrong blood type in a transfusion. By the time they realized their mistake it was too late. My parents were billed by the doctor and the hospital, including for the very blood that took her life. I always knew they existed, but saw the bills for myself in my mother's files when clearing the house after Mom passed.

Doctors are necessary, and many are talented healers. But they make plenty of errors and are hardly gods. Virtually all get paid extraordinarily well for what they do. They aren't miracle workers though- they follow the templates of the successes of those who came before them.

Those successes came at the high trial-and-error cost of humans who were the (necessary) guinea pigs who were so desperate to be fixed that they accepted experimental treatments. How many thousands died or were crippled before these procedures were perfected? Perhaps those brave souls should receive our thanks and remuneration for their sacrifices.

I am not anti-doctor, but neither do I genuflect when walking into a hospital. The US medical system is set up so that we are charged far more than we should be. They have us over a barrel and they know it.
 
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I don't begrudge medical professionals being paid well for their knowledge, dedication and service but the profit margin should be removed from the system. It is obscene that one person can become obscenely rich just because a fellow man has become ill.
 
The whole issue of being paid well gets into weird territory, although I agree with gennie, as above. Perhaps EVERYONE should be paid well, but equally, for equal amounts of work, and its value to our world. Yes, a superstar athlete making $100M a year on his/her performance and endorsements seems an obscenity, until you take into consideration that this one person helps generate billions of dollars for those he/she is directly or tangentially connected to. The same can be said of superstar musicians and actors, and others of their sort. The man picking up my trash, weekly, deserves to be paid very well, as he is directly doing a job that helps keep the community healthy and clean. It's just a tough problem to figure out who should get what, and it does get into a system of Socialism that many may have problems with. With all of that in mind, it still sticks in my craw when I hear how much various MD's are hauling in, and I hear about it from those who know.
 
gennie said:
I don't begrudge medical professionals being paid well for their knowledge, dedication and service but the profit margin should be removed from the system. It is obscene that one person can become obscenely rich just because a fellow man has become ill.
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The question is, how well? Should the surgeon be paid 30X more than the staff who scrub down, sanitize and sterilize the ORs after the work is completed? Or should there be a more equitable distribution?

This gets back to the importance of paying people living wages.
 
StarSong said:
The question is, how well? Should the surgeon be paid 30X more than the staff who scrub down, sanitize and sterilize the ORs after the work is completed? Or should there be a more equitable distribution?

This gets back to the importance of paying people living wages.
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Exactly
 
StarSong said:
Should the surgeon be paid 30X more than the staff who scrub down, sanitize and sterilize the ORs after the work is completed?
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We would not get any quality surgeons if we didn't pay them what they're worth. That's why some people fly here to get their procedures done. If good surgeons were paid the same wage that the clean-up staff gets...they would go elsewhere, where they were appreciated for what sets them apart, for what their worth...
years of serious education
skills
patience
talent of steady hands
courage
strength of mind
strength of character
toughness of spirit
firmness of purpose
strong-mindedness
resilience
intrepidity
endurance
steadfastness
long-suffering
forbearance
perseverance
determination
guts
 
Keesha said:
How do you know?
I’ve met people who didn’t have enough money to rub two sticks together while they looked after their blind diabetic mother who had two legs amputated.

Pushing her down the road in a shopping cart laughing with more joy than the millionaire CEO who has selfishly stashed every penny away.
There was plenty of gratitude and not one soul could convince me that it made no difference to their lives. I know it made a difference to mine. ❤
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You nothing about me or my life, what I have seen and experienced, so you really are in no position to judge me. Some despair that I have seen and experienced is too personal and hurtful to post on a public forum. Just because I don't bleed for you in public doesn't mean I know nothing or have have no experience with extreme suffering.

Let's agree to disagree and leave it at that. I'm here to be friendly, not to make enemies. Besides, I'm having a very difficult time right now in my personal life and don't appreciate hostility from others. You never know what another person is going through so at least, be kind.
 
Chic, I’m sorry you took my post personally or felt any of it was hostile. It wasn’t about either of us. It was about sick, homeless folks having gratitude.

When I said, how do ‘you’ know; I did not literally mean ‘you’ personally. It was a ‘figure of speech.’ Perhaps I should have said “how does ‘anyone’ know......?” Nobody knows ones inner struggles as you mentioned.

Like yourself and most others, I’ve been through things I’d never consider writing about. Everyone has their own story.

These people just happen to stand out in my mind because they had no home, no vehicle and very poor health yet every time I saw them downtown, they would appear happy while pushing their amputee mother around in a shopping cart.

While writing it , I had tears streaming down my face , so was so ‘shocked’ to discover two days later, after writing in the same thread to another member, that you’d ‘then’ deem my post as hostile.

Since reading your post I’ve checked my other posts to see whether I have been unknowingly harbouring a bad attitude and I don’t see any signs of hostility whatsoever.

I do however hope that whatever it is that is disturbing your mental well being, resolves itself in order to bring some peace & harmony back into your life. ❤️
 

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