Doctors Pay

Broken in the USA, Economics, Education, Finance, Health Care
How much are doctors paid?     The average doctor in the US earned $350,000 in individual total income in 2017. That’s about 1.75 times what most people guessed ($200,050). But, of course, doctors of certain specialties earn more than others. And earnings vary by state — and the top state might surprise you. The highest-paid doctors live in South Dakota. There, the average physician earned $432,800 in 2017. Compared to other states, South Dakota had a median household income below the national average, at $56,521 in 2017. Workloads for different specialties also contribute to income differences. Neurosurgeons earned an average of $623,500 in 2017, over three times more than family medicine doctors ($192,800). They also worked about 16 more hours per week on average: 63.6 compared to 47.4. Some jobs, like lawyers, have pay that tracks closely to state household income. Physician pay follows no such pattern. This is partly due to how Medicare adjusts reimbursements, particularly in rural areas. The top 1% of the nation’s doctors earned an average of $4 million annually, largely from business income and capital gains. 

The Evolution of College Football

Just for Fun

The Evolution of College Football

When I was in college 60 years ago, I was a fanatical fan. I was lucky enough to attend a school that had good sports teams. In fact, they won their only National football championship while I was there. And while they have not repeated that feat, they have had National championships in both basketball and track and field (both men’s & women’s).

How has the sport changed since those days? In the 60’s, you wore a coat and tie to the game and only celebrated when your team scored. Players only had a restrained celebration after a touchdown. Now, many fans wear costumes and celebrate after every decent play, both offensive and defensive. The players do likewise and signal first downs for the refs. In my day, if a player made a good play, he hurried back to his position, getting ready for the next play. Good plays were the job, not a reason to celebrate. My high school coach once benched a player for getting too excited. He said, don’t act like you are something special. Yes, you made a nice play, but act as if you do it all the time.  

In those times, teams played 10 league games and hoped for an invitation to one of the 9  bowl games if they had an outstanding record. Top 4 bowls: The Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, the Orange Bowl in Miami, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The other 5: The Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando & the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston. Notice that 1/3 of the bowls were in Texas, and it was the time when the Southwest was a power conference, even though it was in reality the “Texas” conference plus Arkansas.