12.02.2006
When the Joneses Can’t Keep Up
There's a particularly interesting editorial in the Times this week, which comments on the subject matter of another, earlier, Times article by Natasha Singer. It seems as if many in the medical profession (and I suppose, in other professions as well) are scooting away from "important" work and heading into more lucrative areas.
Singer writes:
In her three years as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Brooklyn, Dr. Ngozi Nwankpa-Keshinro delivered several hundred babies, conducted several thousand pelvic exams and diagnosed everything from infections to infertility. But this year, with a little additional training, she has entered a new field: cosmetic medicine.
...
But now obstetricians, family practitioners and emergency room physicians are gravitating to the beauty business, lured by lucrative cosmetic treatments that require same-day payments because they are not covered by insurance and by a medical practice without bothersome midnight emergency calls.
The central thrust of the article is that "rich" America is becoming jealous of the "super-rich," and is doing something about it by avoiding lower-paying (but still waaaaay above the average American income) jobs. We're becoming more superficial, or, at the very least, working just for the buck. From the editorial:
It’s hard for people flying in coach to have much patience with those in first class bemoaning their lack of a personal jet. Neither policymakers nor society at large need sympathize with the longing of millionaires to become billionaires. But we do need to worry about the effects on society as a whole when members of the educated elite think they are grossly underpaid. The more they feel as if they are losing ground against their peers, the more likely they are to ditch professions in which the pay is only good — like delivering babies — in favor of less useful careers in which the compensation is off the charts — like eliminating lines from wealthy people’s foreheads.
America has long had a problem attracting enough well-trained people to important but not particularly well-compensated positions, like public defender, social worker or teacher. But an era in which a cancer researcher moves over into health-care management consulting because the pay is better — as Louis Uchitelle reported in The Times this week — is something else entirely.
It's sad to see, but I knew this was happening. I've seen several of my colleagues, who, just a few years ago, wrote on their law school application personal statements of a desire to "change the world" and "make a difference." Now, suddenly they plan to work as corporate/tax attorneys. Part of the reason is the reduction in government subsidy of public education, leaving tremendous student debt. But I also think that the dollar is becoming to trump ambition, passion, and desire. Everyone wants to be Paris Hilton.
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