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Comment by drkevorkian | Hacker News Reader

I agree with the premise that "nobody deserves to be a millionaire" (although maybe with inflation we should say deca-millionaire), but a hard cap seems like a crude tool with many potential downsides. A UBI would be a better tool for raising living standards, and a progressive wealth tax would be a better guard against hereditary fortunes, without removing the incentives for high earners to continue working.

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You don't need incentives for high earners to continue working.

1) We can afford for them to stop working. Really, it's okay. People can just chill. We're more than efficient enough for it. 2) People don't need monetary incentives to work. Most of us get bored just chilling. We want to feel useful. We need community. We need something to engage our brains. The vast majority of people, left to their own devices, will find some sort of work to do.

Do you really think people will go to medical school for 4 years because they are "bored of chilling?"

Do you think people go just for the money?

There are a lot of healthcare systems where the wages aren’t that impressive and the hours are very long. There are benefits beyond money.

Job satisfaction, societal standing, caring about people, etc etc.

I think most people go for the money. If you were to walk into any undergrad bio 101 class and announce: "sorry guys, but you can only make 80k a year," 95% of the students would leave immediately.

I’m not a doctor, but work with lots. I’m extrapolating what I see and that’s always dangerous, but there isn’t a single colleague whose primary motivation is money. Maybe someone did come in and state an earnings cap, and I’ve been left with the 5%?

It's possible that once people start, they gain satisfaction from the job by helping people. But that doesn't mean that they began that profession because of that. Also consider that many doctors were pushed by their parents into become so. I don't think students spend their childhood chasing "A"s and extra circulars in order to help people.

I don’t think children chase high grades for money.

I’ve been hunting around but can’t find any decent journal article with new students polled on motivations - it would be interesting to see.

The things I’m readying are broadly around a want to help people, often after a health scare of their own or a close family member/friend. I’d prefer something a bit more objective than the puff pieces I’m finding.

Those 95% would leave later anyway once the realized being a doctor wasn't just an easy paycheck.

There are far easier ways to make a ton of money than being a doctor.

Yes. They do now. Not because of boredom but for ideological reasons. The pay and working conditions at the end of the road certainly aren't worth the debt and stress required to get there. Not everyone's a specialist surgeon catering to the elite.

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