I believe pjlegato's point was that while idealism may attract many students into medicine, it's ultimately the profit motive that keeps them working 60+ hour weeks and taking call for decades.

I have a few physicians in my extended family and this mirrors what I've seen from them; I don't know how you'd get board certified neurosurgeons to take q3 trauma call in more rural areas for years on end other than ''here's a boatload of money''. It's masochistic work.

Capitalism, especially our current flavor of it, has plenty of problems, but I think it's important to separate the core principals (mostly free markets, pursuit of self interest) from the pollutants (loopholes, cronyism and special interests).