Why are surgeons paid more than brick layers?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

196. So much foolishness, I don't know where to begin.

1) What are the reasons surgeons earn more than bricklayers?

What it all boils down to is "if you don't pay surgeons a lot, you won't get a large enough pool of sufficiently skilled people willing to be surgeons. Even if you pay bricklayers much less, enough people able to lay bricks well enough will still volunteer to do so".

:-To become a surgeon takes decades of practice, working extraordinarily hard and not earning anything (for a while) and then not earning much (for a while longer). To become a bricklayer takes far less training. So unless you pay surgeons a lot more, not enough people will choose to become surgeons.

:-To be a good surgeon, you need to be very intelligent; to become a good bricklayer, you don't. So the pool of potential surgeons is much smaller, and hence potential surgeons could earn more in other fields, so again, you need to pay them more to get them to be surgeons.

:-The difference between having your surgery performed by the best surgeon and a less good surgeon is far more than the difference between having your bricks layed by the best bricklayer and a less good bricklayer. So there's more incentive to make sure you have the best surgeons possible.



2) For similar reasons, *skilled* manual labour is increasingly highly paid nowadays. A skilled builder or plumber - as opposed to someone unskilled, which from the wages you're implying they earn your notional bricklayer must be - earns a lot, and can work extremely good hours if they choose. Unskilled labour, though, always will, and always should, be paid less than skilled labour.

Comparing surgeons to bricklayers is like comparing master builders to secretaries.

3) Your summary of the working conditions of surgeons is not accurate - I don't know where you got the idea that doctors work reasonable hours from.