Welcome to Money for the Rest of Us.

This is a personal financial on money, how it works, how to invest it, and how to live

without worrying about it.

I'm your host, David Stein, today is episode 343.

It's titled, Why The Productivity Slowdown Could Lead To Lower Living Standards?

I recently got an email from a listener that wanted my opinion on what he described

as a curious moral question.

He writes, I am a surgeon in my 40s, with what most people would consider the ideal job

at a huge academic medical center, and at the top of my game.

I had always planned to work like I was retired, expecting this career to bring me the interest

fulfillment and satisfaction and reward that exemplified retirement.

But the rapid corporization of our hospitals, not just privatization, but truly focusing

on profits and upsizing just to stay afloat, has turned my vocation into a job.

And while many of our healthcare systems are nonprofits, this is of course a tax status,

and bears little resemblance to what is actually going on.

I have found myself planning for a very early retirement, and I'm grateful to your podcast

in helping me to this goal.

However, there is, of course, a degree of guilt when I consider that I may cut short

20 years of potential service to others in doing so.

When I speak to others in hushed voices in the quarters, 95% of my colleagues are feeling

the same.

Many however are not in the position to exit, and so remain frustrated, but that's another

...