$50,000!!!!

More than actual non famous chefs get on other shows. On Chopped the winner only gets $10,000. Now that is hardly a cash prize, considering what some game shows give to the winners. But, considering what chefs make as year, $10,000 is about half a years pay (or more than half) for most chefs. Money is never equale between normal people and so called celebrities. I am a neurosurgeon, (schooling to become a neurosurgeon includes at a minimum of: a 4 year college degree(BA/BS), then 4 years of medical school (a few med schools have 3 year, year-round programs), finally 9 years of residency: that is, on average, 13 years post-graduate school alone) and my income, I am 35 years old and started college at 15 years old, is around $1.3 million a year (that is actually ABOVE average for a neurosurgeon in NYC [where I was born, raised and live], some areas of NJ and CT; on the west coast LA, and San Francisco; less if I were to work outside of the above places). I have always wondered how people can complain about the cost of going to the doctor, yet don't blink when they hear about how much a professional sports player makes (some people even think they are paid too little!). Michael Jordan was recently added to the list of American billionaires. For people who say they have to pay for the doctors bill and not for the celebrity, sadly that isn't so. I save peoples lives, help pain, remove tumors that cause anything from paralysis to loss of speech to blindness to cancer. People with insurance (including Medicaid and Medicare) might have a small co-payment, but few know that we doctors get paid considerably less from any and all insurance companies than what we actually bill for. How can people complain about a bill from someone that saved your life, or made it considerably more comfortable by fixing pain? If you think that you aren't helping those famous people make "highest paid" lists, just think about ticket prices, clothing and other merchandise, books, CD's, DVD's, etc. and various items these public figures sponsor. What has the famous person done that people will go crazy to have a picture with or autograph from them? Some sports/music "stars" even are paid to sit at tables at events that have nothing to do with the person. An example of this is at an event that I have gone to every year since I was 18, because I have Crohn's Disease, and because I am interested in the work that is going on medically. Every year I get tickets to go to a fund-raiser for The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, where the cheapest tickets are $800 per seat at a 10 person table without a famous athlete at said table, $1,000-$1,200 per seat for a lesser-known athlete table, and from $2,000 to $5,000 per seat to sit at a table of ten with a very famous athlete at that table. These athletes don't do this for free, but get paid from the CCFA to attend. I can understand if they did it to raise awareness for the illness, not just for a check and to have their name associated with a foundation to make them look good. In the past 18 years that I have gone to this yearly event, none have done it for free (I have asked). I think it is time that people took a closer look at what they considered expensive and what you actually get for the money paid.