Likely Surplus of Pharmacists in US

[aussiepharmer]

Found an interesting recent topic from several threads/websites:

[Pharmacy Times] - Practical Information for Today's Pharmacist

Are markets being saturated with pharmacists? - Student Doctor Network Forums

"2015 - When the Shortage Becomes a Surplus" - Student Doctor Network Forums

My girlfriend can't find a job - Student Doctor Network Forums

Yet another new pharmacy school... - Student Doctor Network Forums

Yet another over supply thread - Student Doctor Network Forums

Seems like pharmacists are oversupplied everywhere around the world?

Australia is somewhat worse..

[paul2008]

Found an interesting recent topic from several threads/websites:

[Pharmacy Times] - Practical Information for Today's Pharmacist

Are markets being saturated with pharmacists? - Student Doctor Network Forums

"2015 - When the Shortage Becomes a Surplus" - Student Doctor Network Forums

My girlfriend can't find a job - Student Doctor Network Forums

Yet another new pharmacy school... - Student Doctor Network Forums

Yet another over supply thread - Student Doctor Network Forums

Seems like pharmacists are oversupplied everywhere around the world?

Australia is somewhat worse..

I guess it is inevitable, what goes up must come down. Anyway I believe there are still shortages in sub-saharan Africa and the middle east. May not be a lot of money but it would be a living.

Would not count on USA/UK remuneration staying good as these economies are shot and the government's are likely to take the Zimbabwean route and inflate away their debt, in which case salaries especially in the public sector will go south.

Saying that I did not start pharmacy to be rich, accountancy and medicine would have been smart choices. Pharmacy however puts you in a position to influence care and serve a useful role in the community.

[DavidS]

the government's are likely to take the Zimbabwean route and inflate away their debt

That's been my view for some time, although I think it will be a year or two before they risk that: they have to offload some of the debt they are holding onto others before it will make sense to inflate (don't they??). So when they start jobbing off the shares in the banks, that will be the time.

In the last period of inflation, businesses that survived did well, because the interest on the debts incurred to buy stock were always less than the real rate of inflation.

Don't hold money, seems to be the answer in these times. Of course, that's what the government want us to do, buy property and land.

Anyway, my eldest son got a first in economics at Cambridge, no less, so I could ask him, although up til now he's said the reason everyone was so worried about the banks collapsing was that no-one knew what would happen if they were allowed to. Not an inspiring statement, I think you'll agree.

I'll let you know if he says anything more constructive this time.......

[DavidS]

Well, he's just phoned me, and this is what he said.

He thinks that the consensus opinion from economists and politicians is that inflation is the greatest enemy. He does not think that any (sane - ok, we could have a debate about that) politician would risk doing to their country what has happened in Zimbabwe. He said that if you ask economists in Zimbabwe what is the greates problem in their country, they say inflation: more than unemployment, murder, food shortages etc. The control of inflation is seen as being the key to stability.

In the US (he works as an actuarial analyst in the health insurance industry in the US) he says that the government doesn't pay the pharmacists, the insurance companies, who are privately funded by the public, decide that on the basis of the best viable deal, but they aren't out to kill any golden geese. Insurance agencies are used to taking a longer term view than most politicans, he seemed to be saying.

He doesn't think that Gordon Brown would ever try and stimulate inflation. Obama he wasn't sure about yet, although he personally would bet against it. He quoted some work done by Phillips in the 60s, which suggested that unemployement was inversely proportional to inflation, but that the monetarists found in the 70s that there are sufficient people who won't work more for worthless money to skew the graph.

So, it wasn't totally clear to me, and I still wonder if the negative equity approach to UK PLC may de facto be what happens, but not by design, he seems to be saying. He believes we are going to be in for the biggest world-wide depression since economic records began.

He also mentioned that if he passes the exams he's taking next week, he could be in for a rise in salary to $150,000 p.a., so that's my future taken care of!!