Covid19 Different political parties views.

dejadeadnz:

No we haven't lost any income and, as explained about gazillion times, we are absolutely aware of how lucky we are. Both of us have happily given away substantial sums per annum to the less fortunate for a number of years (I am deliberately vague on the details as I don't want to turn this into a virtual peeing contest). And I like how you hit on commercial risk: by operating a business, people (including GPs) have the opportunity to leverage the labour of other people, including employed GPs, for gains that go beyond typical drawings/salary of the principal. Yes, sometimes people who operate businesses don't win out during hard times and that's not new.

Furthermore, I will be sure to ask seek Your Highneess' permission before having the temerity of having an opinion on anything again, @Technofreak. For my sins, I shall repent for 30 minutes. I currently spend 6 hours a week of my own time volunteering to provide legal advice to the truly indigent and have done this and other volunteer work of this nature for over 9 years, so I think I have at least a semi-decent idea of what being disadvantaged looks like. Here's my 20c: in an unprecedented crisis, it's time for the high income earners (including people like me) to get some perspective and not expect a slice of the assistance pie when there is so much more unmet needs out there.

If that offends you, here's my response: blah.

I'm not offended in the least.

You keep going on about high earning people getting some perspective, I couldn't agree more. There's some shocking examples of disconnect. Where we disagree is whether or not GPs as a whole fit into this high earning category.

You made a blanket statement that GPs were relatively highly paid and in another place made the statement "Sometimes people just need to stop acting like they are hard done by". Perhaps I joined the wrong dots, but it appeared to me these two statements were connected.

In response I posted "Based on what you posted earlier about your job situation and your wife's job situation I don't know that you really have the right to tell people to stop acting like they are hard done by unless you know all the details of their situation.".

What I didn't say, but in retrospect should have also said, I don't have the right either to tell these people to stop acting like they are hard done by unless I know the details of their situation. We both know what goes on around us in our own part of the world but do not necessarily know the important details of someone else's world.

No doubt some GPs are well off but there's also GPs who are obviously not so well off since some medical centres have been reported as being in danger of closing due to the effects /cost of dealing with Covid 19. In my opinion the business model for a GP is flawed. I doubt any GPs are in it for the money. They run a business where the government tells them how much they can charge, plus the government has a habit of increasing costs to the business without providing recompense. Unlike some other business which are charging more for their products due to increased costs of Covid 19, GPs cannot increase their fees.

When it comes to government assistance in times like this, the help provided by the government can become circular. By that I mean there are disadvantaged people like the ones you generously help living all over the country. While their daily living needs may be greater than a GP, if that GP cannot afford to run his/her medical practice any longer those disadvantaged people are eventually worse off. Before Covid 19 some socioeconomic areas were having trouble attracting GPs. Lack of government support for the impacts of Covid 19 just makes this situation worse.

While it may seem perverse to some people that a GP might get/ask for government help, if you look at the bigger picture the community as a whole will benefit if that GP can remain in that community dispensing his or her services.

freitasm

Technofreak

freitasm