Why are Doctors wealthier than Barbers
Question Average answer from 23 Respondents
How often do you see your Physician (No of times a year) 5
How often do you see your Barber (No of times a year) 14
What is the average fee per visit with your physician 260
What is the average fee per visit with your Barber 100
Who do you think is richer ? Physician / Barber Physician
Well, lets do that math. An average guy pays 14*100 = 1400 to an Barber and 5*260 = 1300 to a physician annually.
How come the physician got richer?
Everyone in India would agree with the statement that Doctors are wealthier than Barbers. (There are a couple of respondents who think otherwise)
But why is it so? Is my question. If you look at your Google local listing, you will probably notice that there are as many listing for doctors as there are for barbers. In any average locality you will know one or two doctors and one or two Barbers. (Going by the survey there are more doctors than barbers in an average locality!)
A doctor charges anywhere between 50 to 500 rupee for a consultation and so do barbers. Barber shop and a clinic both require same amount of real estate and attracts the same rent. It costs nothing for the barber to cut the hair like it cost nothing for the doctor for consultation.
You visit your barber more often than your Doctor. Almost everybody visits the barber
A barber can start his career early, as early as 14, while most doctors start at 40 and yet, barbers don't seem to have as much money as doctors.
At this point, I know the critiques and the tax auditors amongst you are throwing convincing arguments at me left right and centre. I know I have oversimplified things and the above illustration is naive. But Here are few things to mull about.
How often do you see your Physician (No of times a year) 5
How often do you see your Barber (No of times a year) 14
What is the average fee per visit with your physician 260
What is the average fee per visit with your Barber 100
Who do you think is richer ? Physician / Barber Physician
How come the physician got richer?
Everyone in India would agree with the statement that Doctors are wealthier than Barbers. (There are a couple of respondents who think otherwise)
But why is it so? Is my question. If you look at your Google local listing, you will probably notice that there are as many listing for doctors as there are for barbers. In any average locality you will know one or two doctors and one or two Barbers. (Going by the survey there are more doctors than barbers in an average locality!)
A doctor charges anywhere between 50 to 500 rupee for a consultation and so do barbers. Barber shop and a clinic both require same amount of real estate and attracts the same rent. It costs nothing for the barber to cut the hair like it cost nothing for the doctor for consultation.
You visit your barber more often than your Doctor. Almost everybody visits the barber
A barber can start his career early, as early as 14, while most doctors start at 40 and yet, barbers don't seem to have as much money as doctors.
At this point, I know the critiques and the tax auditors amongst you are throwing convincing arguments at me left right and centre. I know I have oversimplified things and the above illustration is naive. But Here are few things to mull about.
- The low consultation fee we pay to the Doctor (and yet crib about it)
- A doctor need to invest a few lakhs (if not crores) to get a degree. Notwithstanding this the doctor renders his/ her consultation services at a price lower than a barber annually. Bare in mind that when you go to a poly clinic / Multi Inclining and pay 500 Rs at the reception, not all of it will go to your Doctor.
- Cost of becoming a doctor. Both in terms of money and time.
- Even with scholarships, Medicine has become a very expensive discipline.
A very interesting thought, Akshay.! So, going by the calculations, it means that if a first generation of doctor and barber had a certain difference between their individual wealth, and assuming their following generations continued in the same profession, the difference in wealth of the 4th generation wouldn't be as large as it was. Right? I wish it was that way. Unfortunately, doctors, like many other professions, have learnt to ensure that they are not burning cash. I am not generalizing doctors here, but there are some who spend several lakhs if not crores to become a doctor, and then specialize in a particular field. Then, it gets easier. Between exorbitant fees for surgeries, to recommending surgeries even when they are not required [yes, believe it or not, it happens]. A few doctors [GPs] have tie ups with the local chemists and clinical labs, and get commissions for every patient they send for medicines or tests. I have even heard of cases where the patient, unsatisfied with the treatment of one doctor, and goes to another one, and that doc again asks for the same tests be repeated, with their networked lab. And so the cycle goes. Again, not all doctors are that way, but everything isn't as clean as it should be. Cutting hair and shaving beards, unfortunately, doesn't offer as much playing field to barbers with ill intentions.
ReplyDeleteKeep the curiosity going, buddy. Keep questioning everything.
Thanks Shrutin. And true, 4 generations later barbers and doctors should have been at par.
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