Your article headlined 'Junior doctors' hourly rate less than maids' (South China Morning Post, March 23) is saddening and misleading.
It exemplifies that the current generation entering the workforce have no ideals other than material gain.
These supposed intellectual elite seem to believe that society still owes them a living after millions of dollars of taxpayers' money have already been spent on their education. Somehow they think that they are above everybody else when the financial crisis has already hit every corner of society.
Comparison with the hourly rate of pay for part-time maids is no more than manipulation of figures - these would-be doctors are welcome to change jobs with maids if they think they have a brighter future that way. Apprenticeship for many other professions, accountancy or architecture among others, typically lasts much longer and pays much less than medicine.
As for their threat to move overseas: these would-be doctors seem to have forgotten, or conveniently ignored the fact that there are many more graduates than available job vacancies these days. Had free market forces instead of government stipulations been allowed to play a bigger role, junior doctors' salaries would have taken an even bigger plunge.
By the way, I can think of very few places in the world where doctors are being paid better than those in Hong Kong.
