We're talking about compensation here. In this country, you are paid based upon how much wealth you create for others. That is the determination of your worth. It's a matter of supply and demand. If I want medical care, there are several hospitals, a dozen clinics and hundreds of private practitioners here in town. All are covered by my insurance. I can see anybody I want for the price of a copay.

You're being silly. If I need of medical care, I go see a doctor, not Spears. I then pay my copay and then my insurance company pays that doctor, his practice, the hospital, etc., whatever the prenegotiated fee is for the service performed.

We also get into an economy of scale. A doctor only helps one person at a time. Spears, while not really helping many people, is compensated a little differently. When someone plays a Spears song or buys one of her songs for their Ipod, the money from that purchase is distributed to several entities. Among those is Spears. If Spears has had eight #1 songs and is among the top selling performers of all time. The amount of wealth she has created for others compared to what an average doctor creates is not even remotely comparable.

We're talking money here, not warm fuzzies.

How much was Dahmer paid for what he did? I'm pretty sure no one paid him. I don't see how this statement even remotely applies to anything I've ever said.

Assuming arguendo Dahmer's image might be marketable somewhere, maybe on t-shirts sold at Hot Topix, and since Dahmer's dead, he's not going to benefit from that. He wasn't paid anything by his victims, so you have nothing there. The folks who profit are those who profit from a certain niche market. Do they [the hypothetical t-shirt people] make more profit than your average doctor? We're waaay out on a hypothetical limb, but say it's a Hot Topix shirt, again, we're talking an economy of scale. There are how many Hot Topix store and how many "unique" teenagers who would pay money for such a product? Versus a doctor who can only serve one patient at a time? There's your answer.

Policemen, EMSA and the Fire Department folks all do pretty well. Teachers and social workers? You'll get no argument from me. These folks, however, are in a different class (EMSA, arguably not). These folks are public servants. Their compensation is based more upon political power, supply of workers, and the availability of public funds to pay them. If you want to pay teachers and social workers more, are you willing to pay more taxes? Do without a state agency? Fall further behind on our road maintenance? That's the choice that has to be made with public employees.

With doctors, we have a different situation. Doctors can do really, really well depending on their specialty. It's the economy of scale thing again though. If you go to Advanced Laser Center, you might get to see a real Opthamologist for 15 minutes. You stand in line to have your surgery. The guy is capable of producing about $5,600/hr, assuming he's doing the LASIK procedure, that the surgeries take around 15 minutes (they take less time than that) and assuming that each patient has both eyes fixed. Sure, there's probably massive overhead, but Dr. John Bellardo isn't hurting for money at all.

Then there are your doctors who are public employees. A very good friend of mine is a doctor at the V.A. He doesn't make as much as John Bellardo. Does he save lives? Yep. Does Bellardo? Nope. Which one creates more wealth though? Bellardo, by a long shot. My friend at the V.A. has participated in major research, breakthrough stuff which will really improve the quality of life for many people. He's a public employee though, so he's paid like a teacher. I'm not sure the same sort of work is available in the private sector.

We don't pay people for creating warm fuzzies (unless those people are public employees).

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