IS it possible that some professions in the US just charge too much?

[napi21]

I know, I already have my suit of armor on!!!

The outsourcing of jobs has been driving me crazy just tryin to figure out why. I'm not going to say that lots of Corps aren't just greedy, but then I started thinking about some other services, and the cost.

It costs $95 just for a tech to check to see what's wrong.

A plumber charges $90/hr plus parts and sometimes mileage.

An electrician charges $85/hr plus parts and sometimes mileage.

A lawyer charges $250/hr and he's a cheap one.

If you don't have insurance, a Dr office visit costs $145, and that is only for the visit!

My garage door himge broke last year. The service tech charged me $450.00 to replace the spring and it was a weekday!

I guess all I'm trying to say is are we in some situations, forcing people to look elsewhere? If I had lots of bucks, I guess I wouldn't care so much, but there are a lot of people who have a lot less than me. I can't afford a plumber, electrician, a lawyer, or even to have someone look at my computer when it gets stubborn.

We make $25,000 a yr, and there's only the 2 of us. What in the world does someone do who only makes $15, and has kids too?

Something's just wrong with the entire cost structure of things.

[whistle]

1. Someone has to pay for those big houses, luxury cars....

...plastic surgery for wives and all that cocaine.

[madmark]

11. and the mistresses and the gambling

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Not all lawyers make 250.00 an hour

and Docs charge 145 for your first visit, which if you are insured then gets reduced by the carrier to whatever their contract agreement is.

Most first year lawyers make about 40K a year and even district attorneys only earn about 108,000 which when compared to the hours they must work amounts to between 25 and 50 bucks an hour.

I can't answer to your other salaries and fees

[flyingfysh]

5. I once paid a lawyer $350/hour

But he got the case settled in our favor, without having to go to court, in just two hours of billable time. He was well worth his $350/hour. This was about 15 years ago, he probably charges more now.

[hfojvt]

12. even the ones who charge the $250

are probably paying for a secretary and an office so their net is less, especially if they do not have enough business to keep busy all day. Plus they have to pay for their own health insurance and FICA taxes.
I am not sure about the word "only" being in the same sentence as $108,000. Eighty hour weeks do not appeal to me, but I worked about that much for about 4 years when I had my own business, and I made less than $16,000 a year.
You may be talking about California prices too. I do not know if the local DA makes that much. They cannot seem to bring anyone to trial either, except for the transgender couple, a case they lost (thankfully).

[whistle]

15. Secretary/legal assistant will get $15/hr and office space goes...

...for $20 to $30 per sq ft per year. So a 1,000 sq ft office for files, 1 lawyer, 2 staff, reception can run $30,000 or $2,500 per month. Suppose the lawyer has a client base sufficient to keep him billable for 30 hours a week at $250/hr. That's $390,000 in billings with 10 hours a week left over for administrative duties, filing, research, dictations, etc.

The two staff persons each working full time would earn $74,000 with benefits and FICA, but if one of those does para-legal work their time is billable at $45 to $50/hr which could cover that cost. What pisses me off is that lawyers bill at $250/hr for a lot of tasks that para-legals do. That is just not right.

The medical services billings are totaling out of the park and have little relation to value provided.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. don't know where you live, but

my MD trades her services for those who don't have cash. I believe her initial office visit (which can last up to an hour and ALL with her LISTENING to you the WHOLE time) is $125, and subsequent visits are less.

As for those other costs, remember this: the actual person doing the work doesn't get this much money. My husband is a mechanic, and once worked for new car dealerships. They charged $52 an hour, but he didn't make more than $18 an hour, and this was commission, not straight time. When the dealership raised their rates, they didn't raise the commission rates. Business is so bad he was let go a year ago, and he's working out of the house now (again, trades if you don't have cash), charging his usual rate, though he's always up for negotiating.

[gizmo1979]

4. The plumber, electrician and mechanic don't get

paid that amount,the firm they work for gets the bulk of that money.I'm willing to bet that none of the high paid ceo's could do their job,but I'm pretty sure the plumber could do the ceo's job.

[napi21]

6. I'll try to answer your questions.

I lived in TX and was visiting Pa. when I got what I knew(from past experience) that I had a bladder infection. I contacted the Dr. office where I used to go when I had lived there 10 years before. At the checkout counter, I handed them my Insurance ID card, and they said, sorry, we don't accept that ins. The cost is $145. and you must pay it cash today. Maybe your ins co will reimburse you. I asked why it was so high, and she said that is the standard cost of an office visit.

I now live in North Georgia, and I don't know ANY Dr. that would even consider trading fee for services of some kind. Our town has about 65,000 people and I can't say it's real small, but sure not the size of a big one either!

I don't begrudge anyone from making a good living, but when most of the population can't afford your services, something is wrong.

[murray hill farm]

7. It is not the actual serviceman who gets the big bucks...

but the company who he/she works for...as in the plumber and electrician, etc. When it comes to the doctor and the lawyer...you have to remember this...a doctor maybe can finish up training with a quarter to half million in debt for schooling...a lawyer not as much, but its up in the 100 thousands...and that is all before either makes the first dime. If it is private practice, there are multiple salaries to pay and equipment will have ya in debt for another 100 years..then there is the malpractice ins, etc. So, that 140 that you have to pay for a visit...is a lot...but it has to pay for a lot of debt before doctor sees a penny. Competition in the legal field is fierce...a nightmare...and still a lot of education debt to try to pay off... it is a complicated question to answer.

[K-W]

10. and the jobs are really hard and time consuming

A good doctor gets to retire rich, but he spent the better part of his life healing people (or changing thier appearance). And lawyers are responsible for being walking encyclopedias.

Also remember that not every doctor and lawyer are rich.

But in the end, our economy pays everyone based on leverage. And proffessionals have leverage.

[applegrove]

8. The internet will lower the prices of the professionals. Why not go

to India to have an eye operation? Make it a vacation.

At least this time is a time when not just the poor and middle class will be loosing wages. The professionals will too (editors, psychologists, stock brokers, etc.). That should start happening really soon.

[Spinzonner]

9. If you can't afford Entropy you should learn to avoid it

[BringEmOn]

13. Gannon/Guckert charges $1200 for the weekend.

Hell, Neil Bush has sweet young things beating down his door in Asia offering him FREE sex, so maybe outsourcing hookers is not a bad idea.

[Xithras]

14. I was paid $95 an hour when I consulted solo. Here's why

35% is immediately lost to State and Federal income taxes, and Federal Self Employment taxes, leaving $61.75 an hour. Because I'm self employed, I don't have solid work 40 hours a week...I only make money for the projects I land. I actually averaged 6 hours per day, 12 days a month worth of paid projects making my income equal to that of a fulltime regular employee taking home $27.81 an hour. The rest of my time was spent on marketing and client interfacing and weren't paid.

With that I had to pay $600 a month for private health insurance for my family, $150 a month for an accountant, $75 a month to keep my lawyer on retainer, $400 a month for my bond and business insurance, $300 a month for my auto insurance policy (normal car insurance policies won't cover you if you use your vehicle for business...you have to pay a much higher business rate), an average of $300 a month for listings in the Yellow Pages and other advertising, PLUS I had to pay for all of the OTHER things that everyone else pays for...like a mortgage, food, utilities, etc.

I don't consult solo anymore because I got tired of it...there was never enough money to cover everything that needed to be covered, but people STILL looked at me like I was some kind of crook when they heard my rates. Today I only bill at a project level instead of hourly, and actually make enough to keep several employees as a result...but people still look at me like I'm some kind of scam artist when I tell them that their "simple" computer program will cost several thousand dollars to write.

[PowerToThePeople]

16. President, Senators, Representatives

All very overpaid.

[KT2000]

17. Heard that some lawyers

are outsourcing to India. Doubt that they will give their clients a break on their bills though. They will just make a bigger profit.

wanted to get my serger sewing machine fixed but the guy told me he charges $60 an hour to investigate the problem. That scared me off and I am doing without it for now.

[AP]

18. Corporations are making record profits. CEO salaries are super high.

There's no problem creating wealth in the US. The problem is distribution, and I don't see how you can argue that professionals (or any employee) in the US get paid too much when you look at what the top management and the shareholders are making off of corporate activity.

And the thing about outsourcing is that they don't need it to make the corporation viable. They want it so they can futher supress the labor costs that going into making widgets which further increases shareholder and top management wealth.

The fucked up things about this is that the depression proved that taking so much wealth away from the workers leads to depression. Of course, the super rich make money off the swings, so they're not worried about the depression they're going to cause by outsourcing and depriving the middle class of fair wages.

[Cleita]

19. Phil Specter's lawyer got $1,000,000 as a retainer before he

did anything. Now Specter is trying to get it back because he didn't do anything supposedly. Some people do get way to much money, but I disagree with the hourly wages under $100. Even though they may spend only an hour in you place, the morning for them is shot usually so they have to make up for it.

I used to charge $15 an hour twenty years ago for bookkeeping services that I did at home. However, if I had to go to their offices to do them, I charged for half a day, or sixty dollars, even if I didn't spend that amount of time there because it would have cut into my earnings if I didn't.