Thanks krminnj... Yes, there are careers where kindness is requisite. Take healthcare for instance. But that has been hijacked for the almighty bottom line as well... nurses overburdened by a lack of support staff and bureaucratic guidelines. I worked in hospitals and nursing homes and saw first hand how patients were ignored simply because staff members were not given the wherewithal to care for them. I've seen patients have to soil the bed (code brown) because there wasn't even anyone able to bring them a bed pan.. this after they'd been crying for relief forever. And when you have to go, minutes are an eternity. They don't realize how demoralizing that is for a person. And then they are made to feel they inconvenienced everyone. That is just the tip of the iceberg of the inhumanity. Patients die due to similar neglect, often via infection. All because of executives wanting to ensure their bonuses, and administrators wanting to meet their performance goals (meant to cut costs, not ensure better care). It might sound like a negative outlook, but this is reality... not the stuff of Florence Nightingale romanticism. The VA atrocities are but just one example of a systemic problem. I don't know the answer, but govt. intervention is no panacea, obviously. Oh well, these are the kinds of things that make me want to move up to Alaska and live a subsistence lifestyle of self determination. But I know that's romanticized as well.