[vhawk01]

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Fine. Residents make 50-80k. A GP in New Mexico just starting out might make barely 100k. But anyone who is saying that doctors aren't generally very well paid is delusional.

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I hope you are right! Of course you are. But the thing you are glossing over is that well-paid != overpaid, and it also != accurately paid. It is a huge risk and a huge investment to take off down the road to becoming a doctor. I'm sacrificing many years of my life and risking hundreds of thousands of dollars in pursuit of this career. I'm not complaining about it, its a choice I freely made, but I made it with the intention that I would be ADEQUATELY compensated. In other words, the reward would be worth the risk. 90-200k/year is a lot of money, but its not like anyone cares about absolute dollar values. Is it enough relative to costs and risks? I think the answer is yes, or I wouldn't be doing this, but it isn't OBVIOUSLY yes.

The point of this isn't that you need to placate my whining. It doesn't matter if I'm happy or if I get what I want. What you need to be worried about is whether future individuals will find the reward worth the risk. You have a lot going for you, however. Even in the face of worsening conditions, the Myth of the Prestigious Physician is keeping applications are ridiculous levels for medical school acceptance. It truly is an artificial, irrational demand, which will allow the influx of doctors to continue well past the point where any reasonable analysis would show it just isn't worth it for most of them.

But that has to run out some time.