Maggie's Farm

Ponder.

Defenders of government workers and unions say that their pay and benefits need to be higher than those in the private sector or non-union, in order to attract better talent or create better product.  Defenders of tort attorneys say that their high fees are needed to attract those who provide proficient counsel to the otherwise defenseless overwhelmed by the complexity of the laws and to offset the costs of their risk of losing cases.

Yet medicine, where doctors and scientists labor through the many years and huge costs of gaining expertise to save and better lives, is somehow to continue to attract the best when doctors’ burdens are increased to personal and professional breaking point, innovation is not encouraged by recompense, and rewards are reduced to that of an able plumber.

How costly is lack of competence?  In which realm are we actually getting value?  

Or, will Einstein be proven correct: “If I had my life to live over again, I’d be a plumber.”