Patrick Williams
Hah. This is too rich (figuratively, literally, whatever).
The average family physician in Ontario receives gross clinical payments in excess of $340,000 per year (Source: http://www.thestar.com/.../canadian_doctors_made_307482...; see also http://www.workopolis.com/.../the-ten-highest-and-ten.../, noting that specialized and family physicians occupy the first and third positions, respectively).
The law permits physicians to conduct business through a personal medical corporation, allowing for enormous tax advantages not available to the vast majority of Canadians, who already earn significantly less than physicians to begin with.
Taxpayer dollars pay for physicians' insurance premiums, allowing the CMPA to run scorched earth litigation against any plaintiff foolish enough to sue a doctor in this country (Source: http://www.torontosun.com/.../why-is-the-public-paying...).
Long working hours? A family to provide for? Bills to pay? A mortgage? Cutbacks? No pension? Stress? Every Canadian grapples with those issues, but does it with about a fifth of what you and your colleagues earn, and does it while paying a higher proportion of their earnings in tax, and does it without putting cap in hand or threatening to quit.
The threat to quit is particularly appalling, given your professional oath and the great privilege of your position. A doctor to a patient stands in the position of a lifeguard to a drowning person. If the lifeguard says, "I will save you, but you must pay me a million dollars," the drowning person must submit or perish. The actions of the lifeguard are repugnant to any right-thinking person, because to wield that power of duress in order to enrich oneself is the lowest form of avarice.
For shame. Shame on you, shame on any physician who agrees with you.
Most Canadians don't have the option to just "quit." They do the jobs they do on the best terms they can get because that's what's available. The privilege and entitlement of Canadian physicians astounds me - a sad state of affairs for the profession.
There are thousands or millions of Canadians that would trade places with you in a heartbeat, a fact borne out by the fact that medical schools admit only a tiny proportion of hopeful applicants (and family physicians have been on this "woe is me" soapbox for years). Would you be happier if we increased the number of physicians in Canada a hundred-fold, commoditizing your services to the point where you earn no more than a teacher or police officer?
Do you really think your circumstance is any more worthy of public sympathy than the plight of minimum wage workers in retail or fast food industries? If unfairness outrages you, and it should, advocate for those truly ill-served by our society, and drop the naive, 1%er whinging.
canadians, any rebuttal?