1. The whole discussion on the thread seems to be about who has the "right" to be called doctor. The appropriate answer is anyone who's earned a doctorate. Any concern beyond that seems a bit... sad...
2. Folks who earn Ph.D.'s usually have to work for it a lot more years than folks who earn MDs. Keep it in mind next time you think it's an inferior degree.
No you don't. 3 years undergrad, 4 years med school, board exams, residency, and fellowship for MD's. Actually, just to "earn" the MD is a bare minimum 7 years.
Do obtain a doctorate - most would require admission into a MSc, do one year, and then based on supervisors/committee's rec, you switch into a PhD program for about 4 more years. But for bare minimum, there are routes of direct entry into PhD streams - so again, 4 years undergrad, say 5 years grad - 9 years.
Okay, so they spend a bit more time earning the degree. But I must say - I still feel that PhD's doesn't lead to anything - some PhD's actually don't know anything about anything, because their work is usually so specific - they are specialists but only on very few topics. Whether someone is an intellectual or a "thinker" depends on the person, not on the fact that they have a PhD, not all PhD's go into academia, they just get their degree and see ya! off to industry to do "standard" text book research - some of my profs are mind-blowingly brilliant - some are just regular scientists who perform text book routines in the lab, write articles, and read articles, and nothing else too special and aren't actually too bright. Even within the humanities/social sciences, they also work within constraining conventions so don't think when reading a book on media literacy or culture wars that these ppl are brilliant, if i decided to major in anthropology and spent my whole life devoted to that stuff, i'd figure out the convetions and sound smart too.
Seriously, MD's make more money, and I think that med students work a bit harder and go through a bit more stress than those pursuing PhD's. With PhD's, you can go at your own pace (within limits)...so that being said, I will make my stance now and say that I think that the MD is a degree that's more difficult to obtain, leads to more financial gains, and therefore is not inferior to a PhD.
