The 20 highest-paying jobs in America? Doctors, doctors, more doctors. TL;DR UNIONS WORK
Unions work.
That's the lesson in this article. Unions work.
The American Medical Association (AMA) works hard to create an artificially low supply of doctors. They'll frame it differently, but they act like a union. And there's nothing wrong with that. We all need to celebrate that success and replicate it.
The only non-doctor role: airline pilots. Again, HUGE pay increases because of their unions.
Unions (and union-link organizations) work. And with the advances of technology, being a doctor is easier than ever. Plenty of people spend years and years studying and going hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to learn how to use a technology and interpret results.
And without unions (or the AMA), that effort is for naught and capital will capture all of the value.
The AMA has always feared one thing: educating too many people to become doctors. Not because of the quality of human potential, but because of the supply of educated talent. No matter how difficult the skill to acquire or the value it provides, if more people do it, it has less monetary value. More care can be provided but at the cost of lower wages for doctors and the association? For the AMA, that scenario must be avoided at all costs.
That is the irony. The AMA is more concerned about the wages of their association than the aggregate care and well being of a nation. And that's fine. It's America and we all want to be rich.
But let's call an apple an apple. The AMA is the largest antagonist for single payer healthcare. They fight affordable healthcare and equitable access because they care more for the dollars their members capture than the people they purportedly serve. At every single turn, the AMA and their members fight for the status quo.
And there's nothing wrong with that. We can't fear or feel ashamed for being selfish ourselves. It's the American Way. Take and take and let a little value trickle down.
We just need to do a better job of framing it like doctors and billionaires. And be less afraid to fight and take what is ours. In fact, we should run up the score and see just how much we are capable of taking.
We are the essential workers. We build America. We keep the lights on. We pave the roads. And we need to be as selfish in our compensation demands as doctors and billionaires are in theirs.