I guess I take issue with the fact that you can’t realistically opt out. Maybe if you are a wilderness survivalist type then maybe you can go do a Thoreau or Davy Crocket or whatever and just build a log cabin in the woods somewhere. But that’s very rare these days, and society is moving forward so fast that tens of millions of people are being left behind because they lack the technical skills to thrive in a modern economy, and the survival skills to thrive in an old school agrarian economy. When that many people are left behind, it becomes a major social problem that’ll come home to roost eventually.
There are sci-fi depictions of perfect utopias where automation has maintained so much of modern life that people need neither learn nor contribute. But, not only would I be somewhat opposed to going in such a lethargic direction, we’re also a very long way from that sort of utopia, and we’d need more educated people to handle it.
I certainly don’t claim that the current pattern of “No one can afford medical school, no one can become a doctor, and thus no one can AFFORD a doctor” is a good one. But the work needed to invest in giving the world more doctors is still an investment, be it monetary or otherwise. Medical schools do not purely operate out of the goodness of their heart; they expect to work within a system (and be given their own means for survival).
I guess I take issue with the fact that you can’t realistically opt out. Maybe if you are a wilderness survivalist type then maybe you can go do a Thoreau or Davy Crocket or whatever and just build a log cabin in the woods somewhere. But that’s very rare these days, and society is moving forward so fast that tens of millions of people are being left behind because they lack the technical skills to thrive in a modern economy, and the survival skills to thrive in an old school agrarian economy. When that many people are left behind, it becomes a major social problem that’ll come home to roost eventually.
There are sci-fi depictions of perfect utopias where automation has maintained so much of modern life that people need neither learn nor contribute. But, not only would I be somewhat opposed to going in such a lethargic direction, we’re also a very long way from that sort of utopia, and we’d need more educated people to handle it.
I certainly don’t claim that the current pattern of “No one can afford medical school, no one can become a doctor, and thus no one can AFFORD a doctor” is a good one. But the work needed to invest in giving the world more doctors is still an investment, be it monetary or otherwise. Medical schools do not purely operate out of the goodness of their heart; they expect to work within a system (and be given their own means for survival).