Plus, you know the whole 4 years of graduate work, 3 tiers of USMLE testing, 3 years of residency at what works out to be less than what you can make at Starbucks, a few more as a fellow before you can even start practicing. Even at the top end (cardiologists, anesthesiologists, neurologists), you're going to pretty much salary cap at around $750k pre-tax. There is a lot of waste in medicine, but the salary of doctors is pretty fairly priced.

Imagine if cardiologists all of a sudden went 'value-based free market' in their pricing. With all the retiring boomers in their waning years, I could very easily see 6 hours of labor for a staff of ~6-8 in the OR performing a bypass being billed at $100k.

Most countries have doctors skip undergrad which makes a huge difference. The US problem is people become doctors late in life and retire relatively soon after that. In UK Medical school might be 4-6 years, but saving 4+ up front and possibly a 'gap' year is huge. No only do people work longer, but they also have fewer years of compounding interest effing them over. Net result is you simply need around 20% fewer people to go though medical school.

Absolutely. It's crazy to me that "pre-med" is a psuedo degree. 4 years of your life to take a handful of relevant classes.

How much physics should a doctor know? Do you not agree that there is value in a well-rounded liberal education before specialization?

> How much physics should a doctor know?

Most (all?) countries outside the US seem to agree that roughly one year of undergrad maths/physics/chemistry blended into their med school program is enough.

isn't that what highschool is meant to be?

None? I really, really don't care if the guy operating on my appendix can calculate torque. I care that he knows a lot about appendixes and has a steady hand.

Is it worth ~50 billion per year for doctors to be well rounded? I am gong to say No.

Society doesn't seem to take issue with screwing over kids who go to law-school (outside the top 3) with asinine levels of debt and low salaries. All salaries should be subject to market forces.

Bad lawyers also don't kill people as frequently as bad doctors.

> Bad lawyers also don't kill people as frequently as bad doctors.

You mean other than death row cases and suits to pay for life-saving treatments and suits that affect product safety and prosecutors who fail to convict violent recidivists and ... ?

About three quarters of a million people die each year just from HAI's... never mind all of the other problems, pain, expense, and poor outcomes. Lawyers do a lot of harm, but doctors are have unique access, and it would seem, shitty hygiene.

> About three quarters of a million people die each year just from HAI's

Less than three quarters of a million people get HAIs each year. About 75,000 of them die.

https://www.cdc.gov/hai/surveillance/

Meanwhile lawyers operate at scale. How many people do you estimate would have died if tobacco companies had won their challenge to laws prohibiting them from advertising to children? And that's the damage from one lawyer losing one case.