"...a doctor might be worth tens of million of dollars..."

[VagabondMD]

I was listening to the NYT The Daily podcast last night from 6/15 called, "Why Billionaires Pay So Little Tax." They were discussing the recent ProPublica article that reported how little, as a percentage of income and net worth, some of the wealthiest Americans pay in taxes. It was loaded with inaccuracies and innuendos, and while I usually find this podcast to be interesting and informative, I found this one to be a dud.

At 8:54 into the podcast, the guest, NYT correspondent, Jonathan Weisman, while making the distinction between the mega-rich and the rich, drops, "...a doctor might be worth tens of million of dollars..." in the context of the resources that Jeff Bezos might have to lower his taxes that a regular rich person does not.

Of course, it implies that doctors are worth tens of millions of dollars and no doubt some are, but those that are worth greater than $20-30 million are probably affluent from entrepreneurial endeavors and or inheritance. What percent of doctors do you think have a net worth of "tens of millions of dollars"?

[Nysoz]

https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2...-worth-6012988

According to this 8% of responses are over $5M and Ortho tops that list.

Who knows if that’s truly representative of general population and who makes it to the 8 figure club.

[ENT Doc]

I would wager <1%. $20-30M is quite a feat. Lots of doctors out there. I'm surprised that this was the lone podcast/material from the NYT that you found loaded with innuendos and inaccuracies. They are the Fox News for the left.

[Hank]

Relatively few doctors have an eight figure net worth.

Plenty of journalism majors aren’t worth much.

[Lordosis]

What percent of doctors do you think have a net worth of "tens of millions of dollars"?

Probably similar to the percentage of middle class folk who are worth 1M. You can find them here and there but it is not very common.

[Hank]

They are the Fox News for the left.

The Fox News of the left is MSNBC. NYT and Washington Post are left of center, but historically less breathlessly leftist than Mother Jones, The Nation, or MSNBC.

Of late, the line between reporting and opinion/editorial has become all too fuzzy. Anything to keep getting the clicks in the era of declining advertising dollars and declining job prospects for one of the softest academic majors on campus (journalism undergrads).

Blame Craigslist for taking all the classified ad revenue away two decades ago and Google & Facebook for replacing the mainstream media’s locally placed display ads with centrally brokered surveillance advertising. Surely adding a bunch of crap from Taboola and Outbrain to the bottom of each article is the way back to relevance, credibility, and profitability!

[ENT Doc]

The Fox News of the left is MSNBC. NYT and Washington Post are left of center, but historically less breathlessly leftist than Mother Jones, The Nation, or MSNBC.

Of late, the line between reporting and opinion/editorial has become all too fuzzy. Anything to keep getting the clicks in the era of declining advertising dollars and declining job prospects for one of the softest academic majors on campus (journalism undergrads).

Blame Craigslist for taking all the classified ad revenue away two decades ago and Google & Facebook for replacing the mainstream media’s locally placed display ads with centrally brokered surveillance advertising. Surely adding a bunch of crap from Taboola and Outbrain to the bottom of each article is the way back to relevance, credibility, and profitability!

Left of center would imply that there is at least one report out there somewhere of inaccurate, negative reporting on a Democrat in the last, say, 8 years. Can you find this? All errors go one way. Trump deficits framed as look at what the GOP is doing to our future and how they are going against their ethos (which I don't disagree with). But deficit blow outs under Biden are framed as "opportunities". They have no real conservative thinkers on staff - all have either left because of their internal cancel culture or tow the line. They are simply mouth pieces for the Democratic party at this point - all of them. MSNBC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, etc., etc. I agree re: pushing extremist columns to try to attract ad revenue. Sorry to turn this political. I used to listen to NPR marketplace daily. But I just can't listen to them any more. Their reporting is insanely biased and all left wing. I think I stopped listening when they defended China's top-down way of doing things and allocation of resources one day.

[VagabondMD]

I would wager <1%. $20-30M is quite a feat. Lots of doctors out there. I'm surprised that this was the lone podcast/material from the NYT that you found loaded with innuendos and inaccuracies. They are the Fox News for the left.

I generally find the podcast to be reasonable well-researched and produced. I usually do not listen to the obviously political episodes and am able to parse the fact from the fiction. I about fell out of my chair, though, at the suggestion that docs were all multi-decamillionaires, as I know that nothing is further from the truth. The NYT has had, IMO, an anti-physician bias for many years. Even mentioning doctors in a podcast about billionaires is offensive to me.

[CordMcNally]

People, including journalists, perceive income the same as wealth. They don’t take into account the prolonged path one takes to get there or think about how long that income is earned. It’s why most professional athletes (typically careers less than 5 years) aren’t wealthy and why most people think all doctors are rich. Some of this can also be attributed to people believing that only those with more money than them are rich. With that said, more doctors should be worth that much.

[Hank]

Left of center would imply that there is at least one report out there somewhere of inaccurate, negative reporting on a Democrat in the last, say, 8 years. Can you find this?

Easy: the made up scandal about Sen. Al Franken placing his hands a foot away from a woman wearing a flak jacket seems like one example.

There also was extensive reporting about Carlos Danger (Anthony’s Weiner), although I’m not sure that was inaccurate.

[FunkDoc83]

I generally find the podcast to be reasonable well-researched and produced. I usually do not listen to the obviously political episodes and am able to parse the fact from the fiction. I about fell out of my chair, though, at the suggestion that docs were all multi-decamillionaires, as I know that nothing is further from the truth. The NYT has had, IMO, an anti-physician bias for many years. Even mentioning doctors in a podcast about billionaires is offensive to me.

Better go ahead and write them an email or tweet them a piece of your mind. How out of touch!

[JBME]

Easy: the made up scandal about Sen. Al Franken placing his hands a foot away from a woman wearing a flak jacket seems like one example.

There also was extensive reporting about Carlos Danger (Anthony’s Weiner), although I’m not sure that was inaccurate.

these same pieces were also getting on Obama and how he wasn't doing enough to prevent ebola from coming to the USA in 2014. They repeatedly (appropriately) bashed his administration for the initial setup of the ACA marketplace online. These sources joined other RW "news" shows to talk about Hillary's hidden email server and how she felt entitled to use a non-secure email server in her home while she was Sec of State. it's just too easy to answer that poster's question. you and I just cited a bunch I'm sure without doing research. If we had the time to do the research I could come up with thousands of stories given we have an 8-year time frame

[StarTrekDoc]

Docs have always been a relatively easy target as well to do and rich. Overwhelming majority are top five percent and many top one percent earners when working a full time job. This is easy to lump a large, known segment into a target.

You may not know a billionaire, but you sure will know a doc.

We may not like it as we know there's a gulf between common day doc and billionaire. Yet, the same perception is true between most docs and general population.

When's the last time any doc sweated a $500 expense resulting in default/homelessness?

[childay]

https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2...-worth-6012988

According to this 8% of responses are over $5M and Ortho tops that list.

Who knows if that’s truly representative of general population and who makes it to the 8 figure club.

I suspect there are a good number of physicians with >5M NW. Medscape survey is only practicing docs I believe.
20M seems much more unlikely with normal returns unless you're a super-saver and high earner. If an orthopod saves $300k a year, certainly could get there.
There are people who do such crazy things
https://forum.whitecoatinvestor.com/...u-save-in-2019

[blippi]

I generally find the podcast to be reasonable well-researched and produced. I usually do not listen to the obviously political episodes and am able to parse the fact from the fiction. I about fell out of my chair, though, at the suggestion that docs were all multi-decamillionaires, as I know that nothing is further from the truth. The NYT has had, IMO, an anti-physician bias for many years. Even mentioning doctors in a podcast about billionaires is offensive to me.

Well the quote you provided stated “might.” Seems like the equivalent of saying “A lot of people are saying doctors are worth tens of millions of dollars. A lot of people are saying that.”