this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
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Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Monday.

Starting in the fall, the donation will cover full tuition for medical students from families earning less than $300,000. Living expenses and fees will be covered for students from families who earn up to $175,000.

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[–] SOMETHINGSWRONG@lemmy.dbzer0.com 275 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Uplifting: this is objectively a ton of good done for these students

Dystopian: this money was earned by the theft of value produced by working class labor and throwing a few breadcrumbs of it back into the system and acting like it’s some great pure good is pure evil and people will lap it up like dogs

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 127 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. Bloomberg and the other billionaires should be taxed enough so that we can fund this and other social programs for everyone.

[–] doingthestuff@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes I hate it when the ultra rich decide to create a handful of "winners" leaving 99.9% of us still fucked. Will this make my future healthcare more affordable? Nope it just makes a small number of doctors wealthier.

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[–] snooggums@midwest.social 72 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Medical education could have been free this whole time through taxes but instead public funding of secondary education was gutted instead of expanded so rich fucks like Bloomburg could keep more money for themselves.

So even worse!

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 22 points 8 months ago

Even more negative outlook:

The world is dying and fascism is rising and you spend a billion dollars on doctors not graduating with debt? They're guaranteed quality employment! It's the goddamn Dark Ages residency workload that depresses them!

[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago

Yup. Every time there's a feel-good story like, "a corporate donor spent $20,000 so a dozen orphans didn't have to be fed into the Orphan Crushing Machine" the media never questions why the Orphan Crushing Machine needs to exist in the first place.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I knew Lemmy could spin this into a negative. I was counting on it actually. The most cynical message board hands down.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

True, we should instead just celebrate this small one-off victory and forget the systemic issues that plague us. As long as the billionaires throw us a rare bone, we can leave the guillotines at home ig.

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[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 4 points 8 months ago

Rich people like to talk about philanthropy and charity being very good, and sometimes they speak as though the act of giving is virtuous and transformative for the person doing the giving. I agree with that, at least, but I think it's pretty fucked up that they perpetuate systems that both enable and require acts of charity. Kindness and charity would still necessary and good in a more equal world, but more people would have access to it if there were less wealth hoarding.

[–] HogsTooth@lemmy.world 53 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The original Hippocratic Oath made you swear not to charge to teach people about medicine.

[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The Oath was rewritten in 1964 by Dr. Louis Lasagna

I nearly died when I read Dr. Lasagna

[–] nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz 7 points 8 months ago

He's sort of a cheesy guy on the surface but he has layers.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 14 points 8 months ago

It also made you promise not to do surgery and medical knowledge revolved around balancing bile.

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[–] toast@retrolemmy.com 27 points 8 months ago (1 children)

With a billion dollars, I'd just buy enough congressman to make university free for everyone. They're not even that expensive

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (3 children)

He did try to buy an election already.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 13 points 8 months ago

That's where he fucked up, it's so much cheaper to timeshare a politician that to be one.

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[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago (3 children)

It says starting in the fall it will be free, but how long does 1 billion last? How many years will they be able to do this for now?

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 46 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Endowments aim to achieve perpetual existence by only spending dividends from investments. Assume growth of 8% of a billion means they can spend 80 million dollars a year without shrinking the endowment.

[–] TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 25 points 8 months ago

And that really highlights the absolute absurdity of billionaires existing at all

😃

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The 4% rule can fail during some cycles, an 8% withdrawal would have numerous failure rates.

You'd have to be willing to adjust heavily during downturns, probably yearly. Adjusting like that could cause uncertainty and make it difficult to apply for all students.

3.5% over an extended period had no failures on any cycle.

The 3.5% was looking at very early retirement, such as 35/40yr old.

Edit: just want to add, those failures on the 4% were small. It was like if you started the cycle on 1 of 2 months many years ago and made no changes when shit got very bad, it would fail. The majority of the time you end up with vastly more money. But also past performance doesn't guarantee future performance so who knows, but there is some risk.

[–] GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The operating expenses will show a sudden and totally coincidental billion dollar increase in 2024, and tuition will be collected as usual in 2025.

[–] TexasDrunk@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

That's how getting the government into student loans worked out. It took longer than a semester, but it cost more money than free college and put so many people in so much crippling debt so that evens out.

Based on that, I expect that the costs will go up $750M and stay there so there will be one semester of free tuition, one of severely reduced tuition, then it will be so expensive that no one can go.

[–] evatronic@lemm.ee 7 points 8 months ago

The Internet says that the total cost for a degree from Johns Hopkins medical student per year is $64,665. In addition, various indirect costs like books, housing, healthcare, various fees, living expenses, and so on, bring that same estimate up to around $105,000 annually.

$1,000,000,000 invested in a stupid boring index fund at an estimated 4% return yields $40,000,000 in interest alone, or, using the above numbers, enough for 380(.95) students each year.

Based on this quick page from their own website: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/education-programs/md-program/our-students/class-statistics

Wherein they accept just 266 students, it could last for a very long time.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Big doomer comment section

[–] motor_spirit@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

🤙 Mount up

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[–] nifty@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

It’s insane making tuition free for medical students, who have the best chances of stable employment and increasing wage growth over the years after graduation. Make tuition free for humanities students instead

Edit: drs have lots of flexible income

Here’s some data though: https://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/maryland/johns-hopkins-university/salaries/

Median US physician salary: https://physiciansthrive.com/physician-compensation/doctor-median-pay/

So this $1B gift to make med school free for people who wouldn’t have had issues paying it off sounds like tax cuts for the rich…

[–] thesporkeffect@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago

It should be free for everyone.

[–] Artemis@lemmy.ml 14 points 8 months ago (4 children)

I get the hate, but as someone with some experience here, the amount of debt from a normal BA/BSc is miniscule compared to med school...like doesn't even come remotely close. The amount of time spent paying that back for someone that doesn't come from wealth is sometimes longer than they live...

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

If you're not making 200k as a doctor in America and it's not a deliberate choice you actually should kill yourself.

/S

[–] Artemis@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago

After all that school, I hear you 😅. But physicians in Canada, for instance, make substantially less than our friends to the south...for some specialties, even getting to $200,000 doesn't mean much when you have so much debt, fees, and other business costs. It makes a difference given the huge need for physicians all around...such a sacrifice on so many levels with little payoff untill so much later. Couldn't imagine the impact a donation like this would have anywhere, let alone Canada.

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[–] sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 8 months ago

Yeah it should go to CS departments so we can make ad tech better🤡

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[–] sunzu@kbin.run 5 points 8 months ago

Must be nice being elite and to get free education haha

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