Can you guesstimate the # of American doctors and dentists who do volunteer work outside of the country?

My former dentist goes on a 3 month 'volunteer' missionary good works tour of countries like Venezuela and Paraguay and Argentina with his church. He does dental work for free.


At home in WI he lives in $400,000 home which in WI in the equivalent of a 2 or 3 Million dollar home in Chicago. He drives a Benz and both of his children attend a private catholic school at the tune of about $8,000/yr.





Capitalism, good for him.





My question is what about the poor in the U.S.?





Shouldn't charity begin at home?

Can you guesstimate the # of American doctors and dentists who do volunteer work outside of the country?
In Peace Corps we often worked with US doctors and translated for them. Very often they provided essential services for people who desperatly needed them--our most common surgeries fixed harelips, hernias, and cataracts.





However, I do agree. A PhD makes $80,000 on avg. with precisely the same amount of training and education. Why do we prize doctors so much? As a public school teacher with an MA I had to leave due to my debt load and not being able to make ends meet. What makes that service less valuable monetarily?
Reply:People should be allowed to do what they want. Oprah opened a million dollar school in South Africa and people sad the same thing.





It's her money and this is a free country.
Reply:Interesting point. We tend to look at the homeless people in America differently than those in other countries.
Reply:What about the poor in the U.S.?





Being poor is a choice that some people make.





Here is a story for you, our neighbors that own the farm next to our family farm, were dirt poor, no electricity, no running water, out house, 5 kids sleeping in one room. Both of the parents worked multiple jobs in addition to running the farm, so that the 5 kids could go to college and get a decent education. Two of these kids are now in the Congress of the United States.





The moral of the story is that everyone has a choice, if you choose to do nothing and expect everyone to give you something, then you will be poor all of your life.








So you want something for nothing?
Reply:So we should let those people in 3rd world countries just die so we can help a few hundred Americans who can help themselves if they just try hard enough?