Wealthy People

[Gregory Matthews]

Consider:   “Teachers rank third, behind engineers and accountants, on a top-five list of careers most likely to have millionaires within their ranks. Business professionals and lawyers ranked fourth and fifth.”  For more information on this, see:

https://moneywise.com/employment/why-so-many-teachers-are-millionaires

 

[Hanseng]

Surprised that medical doctors are not on that list. A board certified physician, in his first year of work, can make $180,000.

A physician charges about $400 for a 15 minute "consult."  Note, that is for competent medical care. It's expensive; however, with the checks and balances of quality assurance, the patient can be fairly certain that the care is necessary and beneficial.

The corruption of physicians in developing countries is unimaginable. Physicians are paid according to the medicine they sell [prescribe to] the patient. If your salary is rubbish and you can earn money by prescribing medicines, what are you going to do? Unnecessary diagnostic procedures are also a money maker. At least in the U.S. system, that kind of activity is mitigated. In other countries, prescribing unnecessary medicine and procedures is the business model.

It seems ironic that a new hire at Goldman Sachs, a company that exists to make money, makes less a physician, who, ideally, is there to serve his community. I recall an SDA physician charging members to listen to him speak at a prayer meeting. It was 10 or 15 dollars per person; consequently, at least in his case, serving his community appeared to not be his primary objective. Equally surprising was that the prayer meeting organizers allowed a physician to charge people to listen to him say what could be found for free in numerous books or you tube videos.

That same congregation contained a couple who worked for the Red Cross blood banking enterprise. Thery constantly harangued the prayer meeting group to donate blood, as if donating blood was an aspect of being a good Christian. Blood banking is a business. 30-40 years ago, a unit of blood cost about 400 dollars. The Irwin Memorial blood bank in San Francisco was instrumental in infecting people with HIV. They collected blood from homosexuals and drug abusers in San Francisco. It wasn't until the physician in charge of blood banking at Stanford University Hospital refused to buy blood from them that Irwin implemented better infection control protocols. At that time, there was no test for HIV. Irwin used that as an excuse for collecting blood from addicts and gays, even though the presumptive evidence that they were carriers was very strong. Kind of like probabilism. Sure, the blood is probably infectious but there is a slight chance that it isn't; therefore, we will continue to collect it.

"She suffered many things of many physicians who took all she had. She never got better but only grew worse."

[Gregory Matthews]

The issue is not the annual income.  It is how it is managed.  The physician spends.  The teacher saves, is frugal in spending and invests.

Look at Warren Buffett.

 

[Hanseng]

Chaplain Matthews, although you have portrayed the contents of the article accurately, I don't believe what the author says. There may be some teachers who are millionaires and some physicians who are not. I don't believe that is generally the case.

Buffet is neither a teacher nor a physician. He lives a frugal life, has simple tastes.  From what I understand, insurance float has been a significant factor in his accumulation of wealth, allowing him to use other people's money to enrich his company.