6:31, your post is absolutely right. My Grandfather was a farmer. The best year he ever had was the year the govt. paid him not to plant. Yep, they didn't want there to be over abundance of anything to drive costs down. They paid him very well that year. All he had to do was "nothing" to get it.

As for Drs. I've never heard so many unhappy whining drs. in my life as what I have heard here. Its obvious the ones here went into only for the money. Thank goodness there are still some who went into medicine for the right reasons.

We live in a society which happily pays actors $10 million to dress up and pretend to be someone else, which throws millions at scantily clad women in lingerie commercials, which thinks nothing of paying a man who wears shorts and a tank top and bounces a basketball for a living $15 million a year....

And yet, the same people who pay $11.50 for a movie ticket and $100 or more to see a professional basketball game think that the people who SAVE THEIR LIVES aren't worth any more than the average farmer, auto mechanic, teacher, or factory worker make? (These are comparisons I've seen in this and other blogs - i.e., "I'm a teacher and I've never made more than $40,000 a year, so cry me a river, docs....")

The same people who pay $5 for a designer latte complain about paying a $5 co-pay at their doctor's office - and woe to the staff if the doctor can't "squeeze them in" in 24 hours?

And even MORE amazing, the same people who work harder and take second jobs to buy more stuff and live more comfortably and give their children more than THEY had don't think that doctors who spend 11-15 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars just to BECOME doctors have the same needs or rights?

Anybody who thinks today's doctors are going into medicine for a guarantee of a "rich" income are seriously deluded - if that were the case, NO ONE would be going into medicine. I know that MY children will go to medical school over Mommy's dead body...too much time, too many hours and too little respect and appreciation for the level of effort and dedication required.

And THEN, these same people who don't think that medical professionals deserve a comfortable living OR a little respect also don't think doctors should have the right to complain AT ALL about their situation?

Kevin created this weblog as a place for physicians and others to share their thoughts and feelings - and that's just what the physicians who post on this website DO. It's an outlet, for those in a profession where there are FEW outlets for frustration.

Don't like to hear what the small percentage of doctors who post here think? Then don't READ it. We ALL "whine" about our jobs - are doctors not permitted to vent, either? My husband rarely (almost never) complains, but his family can see the toll the long hours and constant stress take on him. Does he love his work? Yes. Does he love it as much as he USED TO? No...the system has sucked most of the joy out of being a doctor, and anyone who doesn't recognize that as a problem is really missing the point...

Being a doctor has changed, a lot, in the past 20 years. And when it isn't finacially or personally feasable to BE a doctor, who really loses?

That's right - it's you. The patients who just won't be able to find medical care like you used to. Think the waits for appointments and the crowded offices and overflowing ER's are a fluke? They're the beginning of a VERY frightening trend.

But it's OK for Britney Spears to command $200 each for concert tickets....

In the meantime....docs have as much of a right to vent as everyone else....

So quit. Or quit whining. DBR's husband apparently makes enough so she can spend all her time doing PR for the insurance industry for free. There are plenty of people who would love not to have their spouses work. Why should they feel so sorry for you?

Sure you can. You may not be able to live as high as you'd like, but you most certainly can. We all make choices, and we all live with them.

Jesus Christ, I've never in my life heard so much bitching from people who thinks the world owes them every thing.

I have a BS, I would have liked to have a master's degree. Guess what, I knew I couldn't afford what that entails. there is no way in this whole world any of you could make people believe you didn't understand what your cost of becoming a dr. would be.

I'll tell you about a couple jobs where people have it bad.

Lets talk about cops. you think your life sucks. Do you have any idea what their salary is? They go to work everyday knowing they will have to fight their ass off at some point during that time. They are in the middle of horrible domestic situations many times a day, They stand in the ER and make sure their prisoner's (your patients) don't attacke you, they have to run through the streets chasing criminals with 40 extra pounds from their vest and equipement on them, They may be shot or have some lunatic hold them with a fully erected bow and arrow at their chest. When riots or any type unrest is going on these men may work 36-48 straight hours, protecting us. They bring home shit for a paycheck.

How about the military guys in Iraq. You wanna go to a weather site and check what the temperature is there right now? I can tell you it's about 122 F for the high and about 110 for the low. Sorry, but there is no AC when you are sleeping in a hole and eating rations.

so yes, you knew that you would have student loans. If your profession is broken then get off your ass and fix it.

And for the docs. wife..Kevin created this blog as a public site open to anyone in the world. If he had wanted a private site open to only physicians, then there are ways of making that happen. I assume he doesn't want to. I also assume his reason might be, atleast in part,is to make people aware of these problems. I think he, as well as other's , might be trying to find solutions.

Are you justifing these guys being in Iraq by your viewpoint of "We shouldn't be there anyway?" That sounds very similar to things that people said about vietnam.

It's totally beside the point. It doesn't matter if you think we should be doing something or not. The point is...they are there. They are there representing you and I pal!

It is incerdible that you are so self-consumed that you actually do belive the entire world revolves around you. You have no sense of sight outside of your own domain.

GROW UP!

"LMAO LMAO. yeah DNR just go down and get a job at your local supermarket. Who knows you will have that debt paid off in 75-100 years. Don't you just love the clueless."

Don't know much, do you? DBR doesn't work for money. She's financially secure enough she volunteers her time lobbying for insurers. Her husband is a surgeon in PA, whose average salary is probably $250K, which is the average nationally for surgeons.

So tell me again why I should feel sorry for DBR?