Taxes?

[OE800_85]

I have no problem debating on this thread, I think it's engaging and stimulating. Perhaps we don't agree, but I want to hear your views.

This is called the "Labor Market" and the reasons are not "strange." Out of curiosity, what then, should be the maximum salary (you think) somebody working for a "non-profit" should be allowed to make? Does it occur to you that if employees of non-profits were bound to significant salary restrictions that they would seek employment elsewhere and all of the best employees would leave them? I happen to know many doctors and nurses (my mother for one)that work for non-profits and they are not underpaid. Everyone wants to earn more, but they earn a comfortable salary. The reason they stay is because they are paid fairly. If not, they would be working where the pay is better.

I emphasized the word "relatively" in my post. In that the staff doing this work is always getting a relatively smaller and smaller piece of the pie. It's a microcosm of the world today. The world is becoming extremely top heavy. So much so, that in America, a family that makes minimum wage can starve (and no, i'm not talking about drug addicts and people who make bad choices with money). You said the doctors keep working because they get a comfortable, fair salary. So, are you saying administrators can't be happy with a fair, comfortable salary? The only reason they make so much, is because they're holding all the cards. They make the decisions, so of course they will pay themselves handsomely. If you were in charge, you'd give yourself as much money as possible. For a non-profit institution, that is supposed to be helping the community, it's sickening.

Do you really believe healthcare should be non-profit or free? Again, if nobody could make a profit what would draw people to the healthcare industry? If no profit could be made,the collective health of U.S. society would suffer.

I didn't make that decision. The hospitals made that decision when they chose to be non-profit enterprises. If they disagree they can go back to being for-profit and face the same rules as every other business. Again, many for-profit hospitals exist. However, they're not as insanely profitable because they can't take advantage of the system so well.

I love the other "Developed" or "industrialized" country argument. We commonly hear this but many of these other "developed" and "undeveloped" countries are better off due to our capitalist economy providing financial rewards to those who seek to find cures and create medicines. I know that there are scientists in other countries doing great work and I am sure they wish they could be here to profit from their ideas. The reason their profit margins are much smaller in other counties is because they are restricted by other governments. This is probably why 6 out of the top 12 pharmaceutical companies are based in the U.S. It makes perfect sense, they make money here. So, they earn a sizable profit here and not so sizable in other countries. Would it be better if they just didn't offer their products for sale to other countries instead of taking a reduced profit.

This is one of the biggest contradictions the pharmaceutical industry has given. R&D is an investment, one that will pay off with success. That's capitalism. They choose to go down this road and develop these drugs, why should we pay for that? You talk of free markets and somehow we should be giving these companies, a handout?

I do agree on the fact we over medicate but this is a personal choice someone needs to make with their doctor and take responsibility. We could do a much better job at this than we are.

I have no idea why there are so many pharmaceutical ads in this country. I believe they should be illegal. The only person who should be recommending medicine (and who has the skills to do so) is your doctor. However, these ads encourage people (who know nothing of medicine) to "ask their doctor" and push them to medicate them. Doctors realize this, as well as the added incentives and bonuses we know they're receiving for doing so, and we end up dosing the masses.

As an added note, I personally believe there should be no profit from healthcare. We, as healthcare consumers, have a raw deal. We don't see bills before we pay them, we can't negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals over prices (while medicare/medicaid can), and we end up getting forced to buy something we need at an inflated price. America has the worst public health of any developed country in the world, and often it's worse than many developing/under developed nations. There's a reason for this, and it all boils down to issues like these.