[lmm]

Academics have very little power because the supply vastly outstrips the demand. So they're all caught in a race to the bottom, and there's a ready supply of scabs to undermine any collective action. Doctors have prevented this by setting strict limits on how many new doctors can be qualified at the national level; academics should probably have done the same, but it's a bit late for that now.

[therealdrag0]

But isn’t the limit if doctors a terrible thing for the rest of us?

[lmm]

Oh yes, absolutely; if there were more doctors being paid less the rest of us would get cheaper and easier medical care. It's a trade-off.

[ajmurmann]

It's quite bad, given rising health care costs

[HDThoreaun]

> Doctors have prevented this by setting strict limits on how many new doctors can be qualified at the national level

It's a bit more complicated than this. The bottleneck to becoming a doctor is residency, there are currently less spots than med school graduates. Every single residency loses money, so they're supported by the federal government. Congress could increase residency funding and more residencies would be created, and in fact the AMA consistently lobbies for that, but congress has refused.

[rsj_hn]

I have a hard time believing that it is easier to hire an academic than to hire an administrator. These are questions of power, and academia has ceded power to administrative staff in what is a good example of Nietzsche's Master-Slave dynamic, where the master has the slave take care of the unpleasant duties of life, and over time becomes dependent on the slave for the basics of life, and finally the slave rules over the master.