[genedan]

Economically, this puzzles me. I'd think that if quantity supplied were so high the equilibrium wage would drop to the point where excess people would stop trying to become doctors, or at least to the point where surgically implanting things wouldn't be worth the hassle. Is there something in India propping up wages for those professions?

[SQueeeeeL]

You'd also think the 40 hour work week would be a thing of the past with automation. People are just very good at building walked gardens and elite communities while forcing others to be "lower class"

[lotsofpulp]

I would bet the demand for people highly educated and trained in medicine far exceeds the number of people able or willing to become highly educated and trained in medicine.

[engineeringwoke]

What would make you think that? The supply of doctors is artificially restricted in every country that I know of; it's pretty much a universal mark of privilege. In the United States, residency spots basically don't grow and it's very good for over-allocating doctor's salaries. Same in Germany, where they love their well-paid doctors and big hospitals.

[lotsofpulp]

Based on how much discipline (or lack thereof) people have to learn. Or maybe simply lack the innate ability. Not even all the people motivated enough to pass all the hurdles to get into medical school graduate from medical school.

That is not the perfect proof, but I am also coloring it with my anecdotal data about which percentage of kids were enthusiastic to learn any advanced topics in school such as math, physics, chemistry, much less memorize a metric ton of advanced biology information.

It is true that supply is artificially restricted in the US, of course. In many ways, not least which is an unnecessarily expensive and lengthy certification process. But I cannot imagine anyone with the average discipline being able to come close to a full fledged MD.

[SkittyDog]

I can understand why you might think this, but you're factually incorrect in this case.

In the United States, the supply of medical doctors is artificially limited by state laws that prohibit the practice of medicine without a license. Licensing requires successful completion of an accredited medical residency program, which on turn requires completing an MD degree from an accredited medical school. The American Medical Association and similar state-level groups effectively control the number of residency and med school slots by controlling the accreditation process.

Most of the rest of the world has similar systems in place, including India.

On the one hand, the AMA system has been described as a means of guaranteeing the quality of doctors, and preventing unsuspecting patients from being hurt, killed, or defrauded by poorly trained doctors.

On the other hand, it's also been described as cartel designed to allow doctors to charge inflated prices for medical care, by limiting the supply of doctors, and extracting unreasonable rent from the public.

Most economists would agree that both descriptions are basically correct.

[trophycase]

It's kind of a common thing these days to pretend like anybody is smart enough to do anything.

[daniel-cussen]

In Chile it's not artificially restricted, or to anything nearly the same level. Doctors can still make a lot of money, they just have to be really good. Medicine then becomes 10-100 times cheaper, in that range.

German doctors I believe make under 100 grand.

[engineeringwoke]

Before specialization, yes. And private practice is a lot more, but getting the license is a pain. However, that is still very well paid in a country where you have such great benefits. The American sticker price salaries are not honest when you have to pay for so many things out of pocket (healthcare and education, just to start). I have lived and worked in the US and EU.

[SkittyDog]

Because it's not a "free market". The supply of doctors is legally limited... It's illegal to practice medicine without being licensed. And the number of licenses granted is limited.

The license limits could be direct, like taxi medallions in New York City... Or the limits can be indirect, like how the AMA defines the number of medical residencies in the United States.

Even in supposedly "free market" countries like the United States, we often have significant restrictions on all sorts of markets. The reasons vary.

[thawaya3113]

What matters is not the number of doctors but the number of doctors per capita.

India has both low number of doctors per capita, and low supply for educating doctors.

[pempem]

The ability to immigrate elsewhere with incentives skills from countries not incentivizing the growth of their own medical field for a number of reasons.

[sdeframond]

Maybe the number of licenses issued is limited by law? It is the case in France for example.