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Aggregate doctor pay in the US costs about the same as the total costs of environmental regulation ~ each about 3% of GDP. (Note, my doctor pay data is from an old source)

2 Responses to “Fun Facts to Know and Tell: Doctor Pay Edition”

  1. chuck martel says:

    In Chapter 54 of “A Long Line of Cells”, a collection of essays by the very astute Dr. Lewis Thomas, he describes a survey undertaken by the editor of the 1937 Harvard Medical School yearbook of the income of graduates of that institution from the classes of 1907 to 1927. He says:

    “The median net income of the group of 165 Harvard Medical School
    graduates, ten to thirty years out of school, was between $5,000 and
    $10,000 a year. In the ten-year class, 43 percent made less than
    $5000. Only five men earned over $20,000, and a single surgeon.
    twenty years out, made $50,000. Seven graduates of the class of 1927
    had incomes below $2,500.

    The alumni were invited to send in comments along with the question-
    naire, in a space marked ‘Remarks’, with the understanding that since
    so much of the form was directed at finding out how much money they
    were making they might like to say something about life in general.
    As it turned out, most of the ‘Remarks’ were also about money, a typical
    comment being the following: ‘I am satisfied with medicine as a life’s
    work. However, I should recommend it only for the man who has plenty
    of money in back of him. Many men never make much in medicine.”

  2. Harry says:

    I am surprised that the cost of environmental regulation is not higher. For example, does it take into account for the effect of moratoriums on drilling? I am not sure such a number could be calculated with any precision, but I am pretty sure no government agency includes everything when adding up the cost.

Leave a Reply to Harry