Dept Plus ca Change

I'm reading--this time on Yahoo--the headline "Get a job in the booming healthcare field!" This comes after having heard much the same line from a number of pundits over the last couple of weeks.

I have a job in the booming healthcare field. It's sort of like the last job I had in the booming IT field five or six years ago. I have it now, but we'll see what happens next quarter.

Everywhere, hospitals, practices and other health care providers are sinking into a sea of red ink because we've reached the magic moment: people are dying because they cannot afford health care, often even when they have insurance. People who should have elective surgery aren't having it. People who should get treated for life-threatening conditions aren't being treated.

People who manage the "booming healthcare field" can hardly talk about anything but the sudden and astonishing meltdown of revenues: and it has just begun. All this is in addition to the uncomfortable little fact that you just don't walk up to the hospital door and get a job, unless it be sweeping floors. You have to know something, and you have to lay out some money to learn it.

Years ago, when I was an actual working historian (for just over minimum wage) a co-worker passed around a matchbook that got a laugh from us all. It read "earn big money! Become a historian." So here I am again.

What I wonder about the pundits and puff-piece journalists is what are they smoking? I want some.