I don't think any doctors mow lawns on the side, not because they are not poor but because mowing lawns pays even worse than medicine. Baseline labor is about 200 pesos (US$ 4) a day plus 50 pesos ($1) for lunch.
My doctor or any other professional lives his own life and has his own income and expenses. As his patient I would pay whatever his fees were. If I hired him fully time, hypothetically, then I would pay him the going wage, whatever it is.
A single female friend of mine over there lives a lifestyle that compares to a US middle class lifestyle with the exception of not owning a car. Her expenses are about $1,000 a month. She makes her money halfway through her job and half from a side business she runs. She has a beautiful house on which she was her own contractor. She has a $300 cellphone that contracted an annoying cellphone virus I had to fix for her. I'm just glad I was there to help.
So you can see doctors are not paid well at all. They are paid better than laborers and that's about all you can say.
I really loved the hospitality and warmth of the Filipino people, which is why I mention that country as an interesting benchmark. It also seemed to be easy for me to meet and get along with people there, while that has not proven nearly as true in the US.
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I meant if you paid them here on the scale of what Filippino doctors earn in their country, they'd be mowing lawns on the side (or they wouldn't have gone into medicine in the first place). Check out their overhead costs, their malpractice insurance costs, not to mention their student loans. Your average GP here isn't rolling in dough. Some of the specialists perhaps, but the doctors I know live in the same quarters on base as others of their rank. A doctor lives on our street, a geriatric specialist. We share the street with a gardener, a lawyer, a flight attendant, a caterer, and a cop (among many others - i.e., it's hardly beachfront property, very middle class). Most homes are in the 1800- 2000 sq. ft. range on 5000 sq ft lots.
So is the doc on our street living high on the hog? How far down in the ghetto do you want him to live?