HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-03-05, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1986.
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Rectors are
doctoring reality
While it is easy enough to support the Ontario doctors' desire
not to be ordered around, it is a little harder to support the
amount of fuss the issue is getting when there are other
problems around.
While the doctors are getting gallons of ink, for instance, the
tragedy of thousands of Ontario farm families continues,
virtually ignored by the mass media. It's old news. So doctors,
with the highest income of any professional group, protest for
the right to be able to charge more than the regular amount
allowed by OHIP.
With their talk about freedom, however, the doctors have a
selective memory. If they want true freedom. for instance,
perhaps we should increase the number of people allowed to
enter the medical profession, and turn the profession into a
truly free market system. Since the doctors profess to want to
have higher fees so they can spend more time with patients,
perhaps some of the people turned away from medical schools
now because of restricted enrolments would be willing to
sacrifice some of the extra income in order to spend more time
with their patients.
Doctors and all self-regulating professions, like to have the
best of both worlds. They like to control the entrance standards
and thus keep numbers of their profession to a level that
guarantees a high income. They like to set minimum fee
schedules and in some cases, discipline those who undercut the
schedule. They like to set codes of conduct for their
professionals to the point at which they and not society in
general, are the final arbiters of proper behavior.
Ontario doctors are subsidized in their education, to a far
greater extent than American doctors whom they like to point to
as examples of free enterprise. In the U.S. tuition alone for a
medical school can be $18,500 a year. There are few
government loans or grants so a doctor can expect to owe
$100,000 to the bank by the time he graduates. How many of our
current doctors would be earning their high incomes if they'd
lived by those rules?
While the doctors have tried to paint the Peterson
government as intransigent, they themselves have refused to
negotiate without a guarantee the government will drop its
legislation.
The trouble for the doctors is that they're in a battle that will
be tough to win. The longer they argue, the less support they're
likely to get from a public who begin to look at doctors' income
and at the average income of other mortals and wonder why
they should have much sympathy. The Peterson government
may also in the long run be hurt by the appearance of
stubborness. Both sides have a lot to gain by softening their
positions and sitting down to talk.
Departure of a
passionate Canadian
Perhaps Jean Chretien had outlived his time.
He was a man of passion at a time when people seemed to
want cold calculation of the bottom line. He was a man who
cared passionately about Canada at a time when we're being
told instead that larger markets and larger profits are what
really counts.
Perhaps he should have read the signs of the changing times
when he lost out to John Turner at the Liberal Party leadership
convention two years ago. People said basically "We love you
Jean but we're going with the bottom line. We think, we've
been told again and again, that John Turner can win and we're
going with the winner." Of course Turner wasn't a winner and
in retrospect, Chretien although he would likely have lost too,
wouldn't have delivered up Quebec at least to the Tories like
Turner did.
Now comes the irony of ironies. Turner, who left the Trudeau
cabinet and whose spectre has been in the background for
years, now will have to likely hear all those rumours of an
eventual Chretien return someday in the future. Here's
hoping there isn't too much of that kind of talk. Chretien has
been a political scrapper, but he's had the reputation of an
above -board, honest man. His resignation brought to an end, at
least temporarily, all those rumours of his supporters trying to
undermine Turner.
Still, even if there is never another time for Jean Chretien,
here's hoping there's a time soon for someone else with his kind
of spirit, the kind of driving passion for the country, who knows
the measure of a country is more than the Gross National
Product or the unemployment rate.
"Of course, / owe this award to the little woman!"
(tr rdlle world view
r � from Mabel's Grill
There are people who will tell
you that the important decisions in
town are made down at the town
hall. People in the know, however
know that the real debates, the real
wisdom reside down at Mabel's
Grill where the greatest minds in
the town (if not in the country)
gather for morning coffee break,
otherwise known as the Round
Table Debating and Filibustering
Society. Sinccnotjusteveryone
can partake of these deliberations
we will repert the activities from
time to time.
MONDAY: Tim O'Grady was
saying this morning that every-
body is looking for increased
efficiency these days even when
it's pretty hard to get more
efficient.
For instance, he said, an hour is
only so long and it's hard to make it
stretch. He figures the guys on late
night sports shows are doing their
part. They're talking so fast these
days they can almost squeeze an
hour's worth of talking into a
half-hour show. Next, he predict-
ed, they'll have guys who talk so
fast you'll have to record them on
your VCR and play them back in
slow motion to understand what
they're saying.
TUESDAY: Ward Black was say-
ing thateither there are a lot of liars
out there or there are some real
fools running the investment
houses. Listen to people talk, he
says, and you'd think they're all
about able to qualify for welfare but
he's been looking in the papers and
half the ads these days are for trust
companies trying to lure people to
invest with them. Somebody must
have some cash.
Hank Stokes said all these
people who claim they're so hard
up but listen to them squeal if
there's an income tax increase in
the budget. Lots of years on the
farm he'd have been happy to have
any income to be taxed, he said.
WEDNESDAY: Billy Bean had
another one of his schemes to make
the town grow today.
Now some people are building
retirement homes for senior citi-
zens so he figured we should build
a retirement home for unwanted
dictators. "I mean," Billie says,
"there's poor Baby Doc looking for
a home and for his wife and his $100
million or whatever he took. The
way his wife spends on clothes, she
could single handedly make the
local clothing store owners weal-
thy. Then there's Marcos and they
say he took $5 billion with him.
That could do a bit for the local
economy. He'd need a couple of
new mansions and that would keep
the builders going and he'd need
lots of staff and a few body guards.
And just think what the taxes
would be on one of his houses."
THURSDAY: Julia Flint was talk-
ing about the big dispute over
separate school funding this morn-
ing. "Isn't it funny," she said,
"how so many of the same people
who claim that we need competi-
tion in the market place to keep the
costs down in everything else, say
that having two school systems is a
waste of money?"
FRIDAY: The budget got a going
over of course the last couple of
days. Billlie Bean said if they keep
taxing the "sin" products like
Any opinions?
Does anybody out there have an
opinion?
One of the pleasures of the early
weeks of The Citizen was the
steady string of letters to the editor
on a wide range of subjects. That
stream has dried up and letters are
virtually extinct these days.
One of the benefits of a
community newspaper is in provid-
ing a forum for opinions and ideas
from people in the community. It
makes the community stronger
and provides a livelier newspaper
as well.
The Citizen welcomes letters to
the editor. All letters must be
signed but, if the subject is
particularly controversial, the
writer may use a pseudonym when
liquor and cigarettes, soon people
will start giving them up and how
are they going to find a way to tax
clean living.
Julia says she always feels a
twinge of guilt when she hears
about these taxes because she's
just not pulling her weight. She
uses about five or six bottles of
wine a year and has never touched
a cigarette so she feels downright
unpatriotic for not doing her part to
reduce the deficit.
Ward Black says in all his years
in politics he's only seen two things
that everybody agrees on: they all
agree government spends too
much and that government should
cut spending by cutting programs
that effect everybody else but
them.
the letter is printed in the paper.
Get those pens out and get that
frustration out of your system.
4*ir
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SERVING THE
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