I found this highly amusing

[vraiblonde]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18883-2004Nov28.html

The title of the column alone provoked hearty laughter ("How Africa Subsidizes U.S. Health Care")

Sebastian Mallaby is lamenting how the US and Europe are "poaching" health care workers from other countries, leaving third-world crapholes without adequate doctors and nurses. No, we're not slinging a net over them and dragging them, kicking and screaming, across the oceans. Our heinous crime is making our countries too attractive, so that a doctor or nurse from Ghana won't stay there after they get their training, but will promptly jump on a plane or boat and go to Britain or the US so they can actually make some money.

Here's a great excerpt:

There is no one-shot fix for this problem, but several policies could help. Rich countries should compensate poor ones for the cost of training medics who emigrate; that money, supplemented by other aid flows, should be used to boost medical salaries in the poor world. Poaching countries should issue fewer permanent visas and more temporary ones. Temporary visas spread the opportunity to migrate more broadly, and returnees go home with experience and savings that fuel development.

 

[Larry Gude]

Anyone taking bets...

Rich countries should compensate poor ones for the cost of training

...on where the money already comes from for medical schools?

I think we need to find a way to make more fair the disparity of opinion columnists in the US vs. 3rd and 4th world nations. In fact, it may be a crisis.

One solution may be to...