Re: OT: Expat Piping Designers

>After all, doctors got where they are by being members of an extremely
>effective union, with an expensive initiation fee.
Doctors and lawyers got where they are by practicing autonomously. Most engineers are employees, not practitioners. Relatively few engineers are in the engineering business--most work for outfits who are in the business of supplying manufactured goods. As employees they do what they're told, they take no risks and are only rarely held accountable for anything more than working to budget. Doctors on the other hand take personal responsibility for their patient's welfare. Overruling competent medical judgement is serious business. When someone dies under a doctor's care, the physician isn't just doing what he's told--he's the guy in the barrel.

Doctors (and lawyers, for that matter) earn public esteem for taking personal responsibility for outcomes. Very few engineers are even registered, let alone personally responsible for anything but following orders.

Christopher Wright P.E.    |"They couldn't hit an elephant at
chrisw@skypoint.com        | this distance"   (last words of Gen.
___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)