Increasing Our Pay.

Line

We've discussed this before, physcists aren't the highest paid proffesionals. Well to look at matters more, neither are engineers,programers,technogis or scientests. The average was about 50K for beginners and the highest was 120K fir seniors.

WHile higher than the average population not substantial when compared to doctors and lawyers. My question is howcome they make alot more when we study our asses off. I diubt they even have to take calculas. You can spend nearly a decade studying frying your brain and get paid less than somebody that gets to rob people for money.

I know you're not supposed to be in physics for the money but when doctors are making 300k something's wrong. And why do they charge so much, does it take that much to keep their job running or their Mercedes?

You would think someone with such big ideas and major contributions to the world would get paid alot higher.

Pengwuino

Well doctors tend to... oh i dunno.... save peoples lives?

Lawyers... well its really because of the nature of their job. When you sue corporations for $200,000,000... they can occasionally become fabulously rich. And realistically, a physicists pay isn't as heavily gauged to his/her performance. I mean think of how strange life would be if physicists were only paid when their experiments worked or came in on time or on budget or whatever.

I also don't really know why you think doctors and lawyers don't study as much as physicists... the idea that 'they didn't even have to take calculus' is a silly point. A lawyer could say "I doubt physicists ever took public policy" or a doctor could say "I doubt physicists ever took microbiology" or whatever is a key concept for their fields.

GluonZ

Look at sports as well. Yes they provide entertainment, but the amount of money athletes get is preposterous. That money could be helping a lot better causes. Of course, one of the foundations of America was that people could make as much as they can earn; that money is obviously in sports and law right now. Then again, most people just don't care what scientists do and have done for them (or more 'advanced' knowledge in general). Most people just care about getting to see their sports, not how it gets to them. The average person probably doesn't care as to how the image gets to their television screen. I guess that is just modern society, however.

Gz.

Pengwuino

Yah that is one of the problems with societies these days, modern ones that is. People are pretty much ready to give their houses away to Reebok because some hero-for-a-day basketball player appears in a commercial by reebok. Capitalism would work if capitalism didn't work....

Manchot

Well, historically, the AMA is behind doctors' high salaries. In the 1800s and early 1900s, it essentially acted as a "union" for doctors, driving the salaries of doctors way above market price. They have lost some of their power in recent years, however. Perhaps something similar should be formed by the physicists and engineers?

Line

All modern society isn't about sports. Many countrues around the world take great intrest in Science&Technology like Germany and Japan.

As for The States, we've got alot of work to be done.

And although they take mocrobiology I doubt a dcotor's collegiate schooling is as hard as a physicist's.

GluonZ

I'm not limiting to just sports, and I'm not saying countries don't care about science and technology, I'm just stating (using a sports metaphor since it is common around the world), that most people just don't care.

Gz.

Pengwuino

Yah the sports is a good analogy but there are probably better analogies. The thing is, one isnt paid based on how hard one had to work to get where they are. Theres always the CEO that got an AS from some community college making as much as a CEO that got a Mba or whatever from Harvard. It's really a combonation of market forces, cultural values, economic priorities of a country, etc etc.

One of my professors once said something that leads to the conclusion that if science had to make economic justifications for most of what it does, they would never make it in modern societies. So much of it, mainly now-a-days, is simply for knowledges sakes.

t!m

Yes they do. A traditional pre-med track as an undergraduate involves calculus, physics, chemistry, and biology.

Medical school is notoriously difficult, including internship and residency. And then to pursue a specialty can add another four or so intensive years of schooling on top.

Add a high-stress environment and medical malpractice suits to the formula, and all I'm saying is I don't think doctors have the sweet life that you seem to think.

Pengwuino

I agree, doctors are asked to do a LOT. I mean what kind of environment would it be when people are all sick around you and families acting insane and you having to work for 30 hours straight.

Line

Calcuulus and physics, why would a doctor need Calculas and physics? Computer programmers don't even have to take that.

Pengwuino

.... computer programmers don't have to take physics and calculus... are you sure you know what you're talking about? Yah sure they don't get into upper division quantum mechanics or complex analysis... but are you sure you know what you're talking about?

franznietzsche

This is a load of bull****. The idea that science should have to economically justify itself is preposterous. If that were the case, Maxwell would never have created his theory of Electromagnetism, without which the modern world would not exist. At all. Maxwell had no idea what would come from his discovery, he was just playing with wires and magnets because they were interesting. What was arguably the single most important scientific discovery of all time could not have been "economically justified" before hand.

Computer programmers have to take both Intro physics and Calculus. You need to pick up a university catalog and actually look at degree requirements. Pre-med students are required to take calculus, in addition to intro physics. Biology students have it much easier than Biochem ones though (Looking over the biochem course list, I cringe. Thats nasty stuff).

Pengwuino

You just proved my point franznietzsche. What you said has nothing to do with this thread. What doctors and lawyers do are economically viable ideas while scientists work are rarely economically viable which means they should not be compared based upon what their worth to society is.

franznietzsche

I was not even commenting on that. i have no complaint with what doctors and lawyers get paid. I couldn't care less. However, the idea that scientific work should be economically viable is idiotic and counter-productive. Unless you want to give up every piece of electronic equipment you own?

Line

I meant people who study Computer Information Systems not programers.

Pengwuino

They do... computer science requires a lot of heavy math...