Do doctors now only care about money? (From York Press)

Is it so unreasonable for a professional to expect their pension to keep pace with their earnings? Particularly in a highly demanding profession requiring years of training? (Before anyone comes out with any shopworn "lazy GP" comments, I invite you to spend an afternoon shadowing, for example, a surgeon.)

Yeah, doctors are pretty well-paid. Their job, when you pare it right down, is to save human lives. How much is that worth to you?

Spooge wrote:
The NHS is one of the best health services in the Developing World. Our doctors are worth their weight in Rhodium, bless 'em. Covering your **** after a botched operation or a misdiagnosis takes a lot of skill and practice. Let's give them more monies. Those people whose heath is affected whilst these paragons of awesomeness are sauntering around with placards are just spoilsports. Jealous too.

eh ?

ShunGokuSatsu wrote:
Is it so unreasonable for a professional to expect their pension to keep pace with their earnings? Particularly in a highly demanding profession requiring years of training? (Before anyone comes out with any shopworn "lazy GP" comments, I invite you to spend an afternoon shadowing, for example, a surgeon.)

Yeah, doctors are pretty well-paid. Their job, when you pare it right down, is to save human lives. How much is that worth to you?

It's not just about deciding how much we think it's worth to save human lives.

There are limited resources, and there are other claims for such resources; education, police, scientists, careworkers etc. If we compare wages of careworkers vs those of doctors, we can see that careworkers are very poorly paid. What's the point of one's life being saved if one's life is miserable?

Matt_S wrote:

ShunGokuSatsu wrote:
Is it so unreasonable for a professional to expect their pension to keep pace with their earnings? Particularly in a highly demanding profession requiring years of training? (Before anyone comes out with any shopworn "lazy GP" comments, I invite you to spend an afternoon shadowing, for example, a surgeon.)

Yeah, doctors are pretty well-paid. Their job, when you pare it right down, is to save human lives. How much is that worth to you?

It's not just about deciding how much we think it's worth to save human lives.

There are limited resources, and there are other claims for such resources; education, police, scientists, careworkers etc. If we compare wages of careworkers vs those of doctors, we can see that careworkers are very poorly paid. What's the point of one's life being saved if one's life is miserable?

So the government can rinse further tax out of you? That's all you are - another worker drone to be exploited by society. You getting anything out of it is merely an unintended side effect, not the intention.

Matt_S wrote:

ShunGokuSatsu wrote: Is it so unreasonable for a professional to expect their pension to keep pace with their earnings? Particularly in a highly demanding profession requiring years of training? (Before anyone comes out with any shopworn "lazy GP" comments, I invite you to spend an afternoon shadowing, for example, a surgeon.) Yeah, doctors are pretty well-paid. Their job, when you pare it right down, is to save human lives. How much is that worth to you?

It's not just about deciding how much we think it's worth to save human lives. There are limited resources, and there are other claims for such resources; education, police, scientists, careworkers etc. If we compare wages of careworkers vs those of doctors, we can see that careworkers are very poorly paid. What's the point of one's life being saved if one's life is miserable?

Oh absolutely, it's not *just* about that; I'm just saying that doctors are highly paid because it's a highly demanding job requiring an enormous amount of training. I don't mean to diminish the importance of careworkers (or any other shockingly-underpaid public sector employees who've had their pensions savaged; nurses spring to mind too).

Lower investment returns, lower annuity rates, people living longer. That is the reality we ALL face and why ALL pension returns have dropped dramatically.
Doctors along with teachers and other groups of public sector workers have been hit nowhere near as hard as your average private sector worker. As such, no, I don't think the strike is justified - its a finite pot of money and they are already getting more than their fair share.