Forbes ranks cities with the highest per capita supply of plastic surgeons
1. Salt Lakc City
2. SF
3. TIE: San Diego, San Jose, Miami
6. TIE: Louisville, Nashville
8. TIE: Virginia Beach, New York, Los Angeles
Why is supply so high in Nashville and Louisville?
Nashville is easy. Like Los Angeles, Nashville is the land of shattered dreams. Instead of every waiter or waitress being a starving, out of work, actor/actress, as is the case in Los Angeles, Nashville has an abundance of wanna be country singers and starlets who just can't "catch a break." What is a trait commonly associated with female country starlets? Excessively augmented breasts and busts. Thank Dolly Parton for that. Therefore every twenty-something inbred country twit who dreams of making it big as the next country star shows up in Nashville and pursues an "elective surgery" in hopes that their newly accentuated "features" set them apart from the rest of the crowd.
ReplyDeleteI also get the impression that most of the middle aged soccer moms in Nashville are competitive and frequently go under the knife, to one up the neighboring soccer mom and keep their husbands interested in them.
There is a glut of supply to meet massive demand that Nashville radiates.
As for Louisville, I have yet to figure that one out. Your guess is as good as mine. Hordes of insecure soccer moms? Or is there something in the water that causes every teenage girl to require a nose job at 16?
Interesting Ed...only women are going under the knife to get plastic surgery.
ReplyDeleteAlso, breasts and busts are the same thing - there's no need to be repetitive.
I do agree with the Nashville thought though - the people trying to make it in the business will get breast augmentation, nose jobs, etc.
Who knows about Louisville. Maybe those soccer dads fixing their noses to keep their wives interested.
Hey CM,
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to challenge the assumption that women are the recipients of the majority elective cosmetic surgery procedures, unless of course we include Michael Jackson in our sample population.
Being a connoisseur of female breasts, I always assumed the difference between breast and bust was a matter dimensional perception. Bust suggests a two dimensional measurement, whereas breast implies a three dimensional 360 perspective. However this is just amateur conjecture.
The question of Louisville remains. Perhaps all of the morbidly obese people in Cincinnati and southern Ohio get a discount on liposuction procedures in Louisville.
The question itself is likely flawed. That is, the # of platic surgeons relative to total population is likely not the proper measure to consider here.
ReplyDeleteThere are likely other variable that we are not considering - i.e. cities in warm weather climates may tend ot have more cosmetic surgeries. Brazil for example, has one of the higest cosmestic surgery rates in the world.
I can't see how this metric is not the appropriate measure to consider. However, the explanation presented for Nashville addresses demand when the question asks about supply.
ReplyDeleteA significant factor influencing supply in the case of health care (using the term somewhat loosely here) is the way the surgeons are paid. If a large insurer with a lock on market share in a region has negotiated reimbursement rates with the surgeons that are generally more favorable than the national average, you can expect the number of surgeons per capita to be higher. Nashville is the healthcare capital of the country and Louisville is home to Humana. Correlation? Perhaps. You can also check the history of HCA for a link to Louisville that might explain why surgeons would have more negotiating power than the average bear.