[resource_waste]

Uh... You are talking about the highest paid profession in the US.

There is no debt problem.

I joke about how bad doctors are at math, but this is a pretty obvious case when Physicians are making 200-500k/yr and complaining about 300k of debt.

[lesuorac]

300k of debt sounds kinda low.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physicians-and-surgeons.h...

> 2024 Median Pay This wage is equal to or greater than $239,200 per year or $115.00 per hour.

> Physicians and surgeons typically need a bachelor’s degree as well as a medical degree, which takes an additional 4 years to complete. Depending on their specialty, they also need 3 to 9 years in internship and residency programs. Subspecialization includes additional training in a fellowship of 1 to 3 years.

So on ~240k you pay ~50k takes just to the federal government and we'll say 12k to the state. 178k is still pretty good, knock out 80k for living expenses (better not live on the coasts) and you're left with 90k which would (naively) pay down 300k debt in 4 years. That said, you're also probably 30 with a net worth of 0$ and could've done a different career path to make ~240k per year without a decade of education.

[resource_waste]

Hahahahahaha 4 years to pay off education for the most lucrative profession in the US. (And you assumed 80k/yr for living expenses... whats the median income in the US? 50-60k? hahahahaha)

Yeah thats a steal.

You can't really paint this in a negative light.

[lesuorac]

Median household income is 80k [1].

It's really easy to paint this in a negative light. You can go study for an extra decade to be a doctor to make as much money as not studying for a decade and working in fang. Becoming a doctor over many over professions puts you literally millions of dollars behind. Doctors are not the most lucrative profession.

[1]: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

[nradov]

You're really missing the point. There is a huge variance in physician wages based on specialty and location, to the extent that looking at averages is mostly meaningless. We already have a growing shortage of physicians, especially primary care providers in rural areas. Asking prospective doctors to fund their own residency slots will only make that problem worse.

[resource_waste]

>shortage of physicians

>Asking prospective doctors to fund their own residency slots will only make that problem worse.

Its literally the opposite.

If you have them fund their own spots, there would be potentially unlimited spots.

The limit is caused by the boogeyman of not getting government funding, not that people can't afford the temporary debt.

There was some stat that 1 in 4 qualified people become doctors. The problem is not supply. The problem is the cartel legally reducing supply to prop up wages.