[jbgt]

It shocks me to see the end game of a culture where the ONLY incentive is financial gain. Doctors performing unnecessary surgery making 90k per week. Shameless.

And everyone is making money, laser makers etc, everyone else doesn't dismiss these people as unethical, but jump on the band wagon: if there's a market, it's fulfilling a want, right? Who am I to judge and I can make money too, right? It's harmless, right?

Late stage capitalism at its worst. Everyone profiting from everyone else to the bottom of the chain: the baby that didn't ask to be part of this trainwreck of a system.

[hattmall]

The only way around it is less barriers to entry but that's a hard bridge to cross.

[anon291]

Why the rush to blame capitalism when simple human cultural memeing is at play? Medicine has fads. They are often stopped or started by one or two individuals. Various theories have been held out about various facets of medicine, and doctors often split into camps until they reconvene / one is proven wrong, etc. There is no need to even involve money yet as simple professional recognition and the desire for human popularity is at play. For example, basic research reveals that even in countries with socialized systems, tongue ties seem to be a thing that people now have

For example, the NHS has a whole page on it, with a link to an industry association to help you find a practitioner. Now, it would make sense that the doctors themselves wanted the procedure done (they get paid), but why would the NHS, who loses money, put this information out there unless certain doctors actually believed it?

[cassianoleal]

I hadn't come across this "tongue ties" until now.

The article mentions that it is a condition that does exist even though is pretty rare. The fact that it is a recognised health condition should be enough for the NHS to put the information out there.

The other side of it is doctors who diagnose and operate.

Firstly, do you have any evidence that spurious diagnostics and operations are actually happening on the NHS at a rate that could be construed as either malice or rampant incompetence vs simple error? The article describes a situation where one of those (or both) is likely at play.

Secondly, if doctors are paid per procedure, how is that any different than a purely private system? The doctors's incentives go towards doing more of the procedures. Top that with the fact that the patients/parents have no financial incentive to avoid the operation, and you get a double whammy. The worst incentives of privatised health care topped with no (financial) incentive to stop the malpractice from happening.

[gwright]

> Late stage capitalism at its worst.

Any evidence that ignorance, greed, and opportunism is unique to "capitalism" or "late stage capitalism"?

Seems to me you are just making an observation about human nature, which manifests itself in any and all economic systems.

[SamoyedFurFluff]

I think the argument that humans are naturally willing to harm infants for personal gain is not at all true. Generally, harming other humans, especially young humans, is deeply traumatic to most of the species. Harming children for personal gain, particularly economic gain, stands to ask why people stand at all to gain economically when committing harm.

[anon291]

Never attribute to malice what is better explained by stupidity. Often doctors just take wild guesses and use their positions of authority to make it seeem as if they know what they're doing. This is a historically problematic part of the profession and has led to all kinds of known harms. For example, the deaths of laboring women in early maternity wards by doctors who 'knew best'.

[gwright]

> I think the argument that humans are naturally willing to harm infants for personal gain is not at all true.

Who is making that argument? There isn't even agreement on the assertion of "harm" in the particular context of the original article. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.

[readthenotes1]

I guess you're being downvoted by the people who don't realize that greed was recognized as one of the major human failures long before capitalism was invented...

[ThrowawayR2]

> "Late stage capitalism at its worst."

You're literally posting on a site paid for by a venture capital fund who's audience is startup hackers and other venture capital people. Why are you here on HN if you dislike capitalism?

[jbgt]

I think it's fine to invest in say battery technology.

In Europe IIRC, for example, doctors are not allowed to advertise. Not considered ethical.

In this article, the for profit medical system has placed ethics so far behind money. It's not just one outlier doctor , it's a whole system.

Maybe I overreacted. But to me something is wrong when basic human decency comes in second in the helping professions.