[jsnx]

Wow. To think of the envy doctors must feel -- making a measly 200Gs while the venture capitalists are making millions!

We all ought to consider, too, the absolute worthlessness of venture capital in a social sense (and the basic worthlessness of the web, I might add). How much should people expect to make for playing with computers -- in one form or another -- while other people make their bread and clean their houses?

Of course, it's always been that way -- income is not proportional to work. If it was, the grape pickers would be shopping at Neiman Marcus.

[pg]

We all ought to consider, too, the absolute worthlessness of venture capital in a social sense

What do you mean? What is value "in a social sense?"

[jsnx]

Venture capitalists benefit themselves and a handful of other people economically, while providing funding for services that are -- in so many cases -- vacuous garbage. The tubes of the internet are clogged with pr0n, but where is a single good site for searching #haskell?

However, my point was a little more general -- it makes most sense in connection with the bit about work and reward. Doctors and lawyers are portrayed as civil servants in the article, and this is used to drum up some sympathy for their relative impoverishment (relative to VCs). Why don't they mention the poor nurses?

Doctors and lawyers have ridden the demand curve long enough; they now find themselves contending with people who do even less and make even more, and they complain. Reflection would have been a more respectable response.

[jsnx]

I'm forced to reconsider this remark. Venture capitalists -- like all investors -- play an important role in bridging the gap between consumer demand and actual innovation. They are less risk averse than most investors, though -- and more able to drop a bunch of money all in one go -- so they tend to be more timely than other investors.

[noonespecial]

The difference is not how "hard" the work is, but how many people could do it. Any doctor could pick grapes, but very few grape pickers could be doctors. Scarcity of doctors, high pay; plenty of grape pickers, low pay.

The problem we are having is that the economics are being changed in a occluded space. The doctor makes 250k, but has to shell out 60k for malpractice insurance, and 30k a year to repay student loans for nearly a decade. The lawyer trudges to work every day to stick postits on briefs in order to get that "big score" from a medical liability suit, knowing that he is part of the problem; I'll just grin and bear it until I make partner...

Picking grapes starts to look pretty good.

What will we do when all of the good doctors decide to pick grapes?

[jsnx]

I feel so bad for doctors and lawyers after reading your post. Now think about how the poor sysadmins feel -- man, picking grapes is starting to look pretty good...

[forgotmypass]

income is not proportional to work. If it was, the grape pickers would be shopping at Neiman Marcus.

If it was, there would be no Neiman Marcus, or much of anything else.

[jsnx]

I meant to highlight the irony of doctors and lawyers, of all people, complaining about this fact. I am not a socialist.

[mynameishere]

the grape pickers

Good example. Just coming off the wine tour at Napa are we?

[jsnx]

I was a homeless man two Januaries ago -- I lived in a van at the corner of MLK and Oregon in Berkeley. This wasn't a student project, either. I really just had no money, no friends who would take me and nowhere else to go. Thank God someone loaned me their van.

In the intervening years, many kind people tolerated me as I wormed my way into IT. Now I live in a house and, yes indeed, drink the wines of Napa and other places.