Why are surgeons paid more than brick layers?

[limpyhobbler]

192. Slightly different question: How much more should a surgeon make than a brick layer?

I see alot of people saying supply and demand. More people can lay bricks, very few can do surgery.

That's true. But how much of the salary difference is accounted for by that?

We don't have to accept "supply and demand" as the final answer, even if it is a partly correct answer.

One of the reasons why surgeons make so much money is that when you need a surgeon, you don't have a choice. You have to pay or you could die. People are sort of held hostage.

Also you can't really call in three or four surgeons to get the best estimate. You can't take bids. (Not that it would be a good idea to.) You can only choose from surgeons the insurance company will allow. And the price is not negotiable.

Assuming decent insurance, the patient is not even paying for the surgery. The insurance company pays. The actual price of the service is determined largely by bureaucratic price fixing between insurance companies and provider groups.

So it's clear that for multiple reasons there is not really a free market at work when choosing a surgeon.
And so the supply and demand answer from Econ 101 is not sufficient.

Also, are surgeon salaries alot higher in the US compared to Canada where insurance is public?
I suspect yes.

How about compared to the UK, where the whole system is public?
Again, I am guessing US surgeons are paid alot more than their Canadian or UK counterparts.

How much should doctors make? I think it's a fair question.

I found some comparison to other countries, although I'm not sure how reliable it is. I just did a quick google search.

This site has a comparison chart of surgeon salaries in various countries:
http://www.worldsalaries.org/generalphysician.shtml


Interesting 2009 article from Slate:

There's no question that doctors in the United States make a lot of money, especially compared with their counterparts abroad. American doctors make, on average, four times what French doctors earn. And it's not just because everyone in America makes more money: The gap between doctors' incomes and those of professionals is far bigger in the United States than elsewhere. In the 1990s, the ratio of the average American doctor's income to the average American employee's income was about 5.5. In Germany, it was 3.4; Canada, 3.2; Australia, 2.2; Switzerland, 2.1; France, 1.9; Sweden, 1.5; the United Kingdom, 1.4.

American doctors' salaries are high for several reasons. The first is the cost of education. In France and Great Britain, students go directly to medical school after high school, and their entire educations are free. In the United States, students must first get a bachelor's degree before attending medical school, and the average medical student's debt is $155,000. Then come at least three years of residency, which usually pays less than $50,000 a year. After all that, it's no wonder doctors feel entitled to six-figure salaries. Another reason U.S. doctors get paid a lot is market forces: In a single-payer system like Britain's, the government can bargain down the prices of treatments, which leads to lower income for doctors. No such entity exists in the United States—Medicare is big, but not that big.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2009/09/lets_pay_doctor.html