Er, no, I did mean equates to. Please don't treat me like I'm 4.
If the tax people pay as a whole (ie. total tax paid) does not equate to the money spent on education/health etc.. where exactly does the money for all this come from? (I know we have a national debt, but the point holds).
You said: "we are struggling to care for our own people" - Eh? are people who have private healthcare NOT our own people?!
So what if "the masses" end up subsidising doctors' education? Doctors' taxes end up paying for unemployment benefits, childless people subsidise the costs of those with children. What's new?
Again, I fail to see why this should not apply to English or Law graduates - why just medics? Like I said, we are very short of teachers too! Yet there are many peopel qualified to teach who are working in other jobs. I really don't see why it should matter that medicine has more limited places than, say, media studies.
Surely a doctor who works privately, earns lots of money, pays lots of income tax, treats people... pays the nation back more effectively than a graduate of a really crappy degree, who can't find a job and is on JSA. What about people who drop out? would you charge them a fee too? or what about people doing A-levels? That costs the government money too..
Rosie
Ps.
I wouldn't want someone as my doctor who would kill to satisfy their own ambitions