This may be good advice when the socially-beneficial job in question is something less expensive than medicine. But doctors are expensive. Most of us can’t afford to pay for someone else to be a doctor.
But, still, let’s consider someone whose skills and interests do make it feasible for them to do so. Let’s say they could work as a doctor (earning, let’s say, $150k/year, and perhaps costing $200k/year “fully loaded”—for the avoidance of doubt, all numbers here are completely made up) or as some kind of financial analyst (earning, let’s say, $350k/year). After tax, perhaps our hypothetical financier is getting $240k/year, which means they could pay for a doctor and have $50k/year left over. Alternatively, they could be a doctor and take home ~$110k/year.
I repeat that all these numbers are made up (except that I checked the rough relationship between pretax and posttax income). But the overall point is pretty clear: the person we considered could pay for someone else to be a doctor, but only by taking a much better-paid job and ending up paid much less. They’d have to enjoy finance a lot more than medicine for this to be a good trade.
On the other hand, they probably can do more good by picking some job that suits them and pays well, and giving (say) 20% of their income to an effective charity. But it probably won’t be (either directly or indirectly) by paying other people to be doctors.
This may be good advice when the socially-beneficial job in question is something less expensive than medicine. But doctors are expensive. Most of us can’t afford to pay for someone else to be a doctor.
Doctors in Western countries are expensive. I don’t think that African doctors are as expensive.
This may be good advice when the socially-beneficial job in question is something less expensive than medicine. But doctors are expensive. Most of us can’t afford to pay for someone else to be a doctor.
But, still, let’s consider someone whose skills and interests do make it feasible for them to do so. Let’s say they could work as a doctor (earning, let’s say, $150k/year, and perhaps costing $200k/year “fully loaded”—for the avoidance of doubt, all numbers here are completely made up) or as some kind of financial analyst (earning, let’s say, $350k/year). After tax, perhaps our hypothetical financier is getting $240k/year, which means they could pay for a doctor and have $50k/year left over. Alternatively, they could be a doctor and take home ~$110k/year.
I repeat that all these numbers are made up (except that I checked the rough relationship between pretax and posttax income). But the overall point is pretty clear: the person we considered could pay for someone else to be a doctor, but only by taking a much better-paid job and ending up paid much less. They’d have to enjoy finance a lot more than medicine for this to be a good trade.
On the other hand, they probably can do more good by picking some job that suits them and pays well, and giving (say) 20% of their income to an effective charity. But it probably won’t be (either directly or indirectly) by paying other people to be doctors.
Doctors in Western countries are expensive. I don’t think that African doctors are as expensive.