"Of those in the medical profession, more than two percent of us are
doctors of medicine. There are many more specialists. For every fifty,
or less, adult Martians, or for 25 couples and their families, we
have one general practitioner and one nurse. If we feel that more are
needed, we increase the number of medical students as required.
"These general practitioners are responsible for the prevention of
sickness, and for their cure. They can always call to their assistance
specialists.
"In the dental and other body-curing professions we have no less than
one doctor for every two hundred of our inhabitants with the same
responsibilities as the general practitioners. I understand you have
one to every 800 persons in the United States, the highest rate of any
Earth nation.
"We have specialization in industries and in professions. Our system
tends to make each one of us expert in his line, so that we not only
improve the quality but also increase the quantity of production and
services. Earth men, unlike us, cannot produce so many experts because
nearly half of your population are wasting their time either in
non-essential work, 'easy' jobs, or living at the expense of others.
"On our planet everyone, from the day he graduates from our schools to
the time he becomes infirm and helpless, keeps fully occupied.
"Old cities, which I remember, have been totally destroyed and
reconstructed nearly every generation, or sooner. This constant
installation of new and improved living appliances and the changes
in our general way of life have created for us a bee-hive of energy,
industry and activity in creating better and safer patterns of living.
Our young or aged like on your earth do not listlessly hang around
homes, barrooms, or streets, dying before their time from the lack of
physical and mental activity. We all aim toward a more or less creative
and realizable goal, whose advancement contributes to our social good.
"Should it become irksome or monotonous for a person to do the same
thing all the time, as in many instances it does, he or she may
take theoretical and practical courses in other endeavors under the
tutelage of our expert aged. Many of us remain all our lives in the
same professions and crafts. Our work is not wearisome, because we put
in but four hours a day, and have plenty of time for study, music,
recreations, pleasures, rest, and religious worship. The poorest worker
of our first grade is better compensated and is happier than your
richest man. Please contrast these two; and I leave it to you to make
your own judgment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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