Baseball, Medicine, Pain and Death
A few family members and I had an impassive conversation the other day concerning why it is that entertainers and professional athletes often make 10x the amount of money that health professionals make. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees made $33,000,000 in 2009, while the average salary for an Emergency Room Physician was $231,368–that is a 70% difference! This isn’t a new question, and I doubt I have anything new to add to the conversation, but it is a question worth asking and worth thinking about.
I think it’s important to note that most professions take a tremendous amount of discipline, focus and dedication and I’m not trying to take anything away from anyone. But no matter which angle I approach it from, in this comparison, it’s the medical professionals who seem to get the short end of the stick. Most Doctors and medical professionals have studied for years to have the opportunity to practice medicine and have dedicated their entire lives to the noble task of caring for the sick and saving life. For most people it is a complete mystery why we revere entertainers and athletes more than doctors.
I didn’t spend a ton of time thinking about this, but one interesting thing did occur to me. People in medical professions along with athletes, entertainers, singers, actors etc, have at least one thing in common–they all address the issue of death and pain, either directly or indirectly. While medical practitioners address this issue directly, entertainers, singers, actors and professional athletes address this issue indirectly. For the two minutes we listen to a beautiful song, the hour and a half we watch a comedic motion picture, or the three hours we watch a football game, we’re diverted from the certainty that we will one day face death. One of the services athletes and entertainers provide to us is an escape from reality, a fantastic incognizant distraction that allows us to seek refuge for a few hours and forget our worries.
Again, I absolutely do not know why we revere pro athletes and entertainers to the degree that we shower them with millions of dollars, this is just my tiny observation.
The simple truth of it is that athletes, etc. sell consumers through advertisements and are compensated proportionately. Medical professionals are still amply paid when compared to most of the rest of society.
Well put Eric. Medical professionals are amply paid in relation to the rest of society. I guess the question I was asking is why are entertainers, athletes etc., in many cases so much more revered than Doctors? My observation about the escape from reality offered by entertainers and athletes could be one reason why.
$231,000 sounds pretty good to me, who only has two part-time jobs.As for why we revere entertainers and athletes, we don't see doctors on TV as much, except mostly in fictional situations...or if we do see them, it might be on Court TV or CNN being sued for medical malpractice. Sad but true.