Sincerely: What do we really value?

I was reading an article in the NY Times about how the shortage of doctors will impact President Obama's health care goals. According to the article there is a shortage of primary care physicians - the doctors who are responsible for the day-to-day health of many Americans. Many doctors are leaving the primary care sector of the business to specialize in specific areas of medicine, as specialist tend to make more money. The NY Times quoted President Obama's speech at a White House forum, where he said, "We're not producing enough primary care physicians... The costs of medical education are so high that people feel they've got to specialize."

As I was reading this article, for some reason the NFL draft, which took place last weekend, came to mind. And I asked myself, what is wrong with our values system in America?

According to salary.com, the median expected salary for a physician is $147,824 with approximately 10% of doctors bringing in more than $190,000 a year (I would assume that much of the that 10% are specialist).

Now, back to the NFL draft.

The number one pick in the 2009 NFL draft, Matthew Stafford, received a six year contract. Over the six years of his contract Stafford will make $78 million if all goes as planned. That equals out to $13 million per year. If for some reason, such as injury, Stafford is not able to uphold the terms of his contract he is still guaranteed to receive $41.7 million over the 6 years, which is approximately $7 million per yer. With that in mind, please consider the fact that several NFL football players (professional athletes in general) are given similar compensation.... BUT NONE OF THEM SAVE LIVES FOR A LIVING!!!

Based on these numbers, Stafford's salary can pay the median physicians salary about 88 times over. So again I ask:

WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR VALUES SYSTEM???

Sincerely,

TSH