My brother-in-law is a general surgeon. He's currently in high demand in a time that's not even close to TEOTWAWKI. I'm not understanding the concept of how his demand would suddenly go down when his "other patients die off". I have personally been the recipient of his medical care when we were outside the hospital, and he didn't have all his expensive tools at his disposal. I think most, or all, doctors have training in primitive care.
This is how you barter with this kind of guy: You give him a place to stay, make sure he's fed, etc., in order to keep him around. I don't have his expertise. I don't always need it, but when I need it, I NEED IT. There is no substitute for his skill set. It's quite different than being, for example, an auto mechanic where you have wide latitude to experiment and see if something will work.
On the flip side, the poor guy is clueless outside of medicine, as many doctors are. He would need someone like me for stuff that's common knowledge to people on this site.
How good is his bargaining position when the services of hundreds of thousands of similarly qualified people becomes available over a short period of time?
Keep in mind too that the fancy gizmos won't be available, severely limiting what surgeries can be performed at all, much less with a reasonable chance of success.
It seems quite possible that people like auto mechanics whose skills might well be more readily transfered to problems at hand could be in more demand.
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Warning - I am not an expert on anything having to do with this forum, but that won't stop me from saying what I think.
Bob
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