Healing The Spirit: More Profitable Than Healing The Body
Yes, it’s true – most doctors may soon be government employees. No, not the Lasik surgeons, the plastic surgeons, or the dentists — they were clearly more focused on career day. But is it necessarily a bad thing if all of your income comes from federal, state, or local governments?
If your business is caring for the medical needs of the less fortunate, a Medicaid doctor or a VA doctor perhaps, then your luxury box may be something more Thoreau-like, maybe some nice lawn furniture in the backyard. On the other hand, if your business model involves caring for recently-released prisoners or drug addicts, then you are in the financial sweet spot.
As reported in the Courier-Journal, the non-profit company Dismas (not dismal) Charities, Inc. made news by virtue of their purchase of a luxury suite in our new taxpayer-funded college basketball arena, the Yum Center. Dismas charities takes all $38 million of its annual budget from the government. The CEO, Louisville’s Ray Weis, paid himself $600,546 in 2008. He states, “We thought long and hard before paying $92,000 to lease a luxury box at the Yum Center. It’s a lot of money.”
Dismas Charities’ mission statement says that:
Healing the Human Spirit is the energy source behind our commitment to community-based corrections. Dismas Charities values the dignity of all individuals and that, as such, we believe all individuals are entitled to be treated with respect and compassion.
So it seems that at least in the eyes of government, healing the spirit is vastly more profitable than healing the body.
Career day: Focus. Want a luxury box? Heal the spirit. It is tax-empt to boot.
JMM
(Photo: Dismas Charites Inc., The Carriage House)
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
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