No, not really. My american, pediatrician drove a beat up Subaru. Doctors is a pretty big field that covers GPs (PCPs in the US), surgeons, anaesthesiologist, etc. Surgeons make a lot of money in the US and everywhere, but your typical GP is not ballin'. I'd even say doctors in other western countries make more because no student loans and no malpractice insurance means their take home pay is higher.
Drugs are more expensive, partially because the U.S. subsidizes R&D for everyone else.
This list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmaceutical_companie... has the top 2 drug companies being in the US and 3rd, 4th, and 5th are european. The US does subsidize the worlds R&D in erectile dysfunction research ;-). There are plenty of drugs that have been approved elsewhere that haven't been seen in the US.
tptacke's comment notwithstanding, I have a pediatrician friend who points out that among doctors, pediatricians are the lowest paid. This might be biasing your anecdote here.
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Doctors in the U.S. make more money.
No, not really. My american, pediatrician drove a beat up Subaru. Doctors is a pretty big field that covers GPs (PCPs in the US), surgeons, anaesthesiologist, etc. Surgeons make a lot of money in the US and everywhere, but your typical GP is not ballin'. I'd even say doctors in other western countries make more because no student loans and no malpractice insurance means their take home pay is higher.
Drugs are more expensive, partially because the U.S. subsidizes R&D for everyone else.
This list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmaceutical_companie... has the top 2 drug companies being in the US and 3rd, 4th, and 5th are european. The US does subsidize the worlds R&D in erectile dysfunction research ;-). There are plenty of drugs that have been approved elsewhere that haven't been seen in the US.
Don't bring an anecdote to a gun fight, or something like that:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/how-much-do-doc...
(US GPs make sharply more than those in Europe).
And as pointed out in the last paragraph. The table excludes cost of education and malpractice insurance.
tptacke's comment notwithstanding, I have a pediatrician friend who points out that among doctors, pediatricians are the lowest paid. This might be biasing your anecdote here.