Theoretically if the podunk town is willing to pay 5x, 10x, 100x, etc. A doctor would definitely take up that. Hell, I would do software development in a podunk town for a million dollar salary. Maybe even a 750k salary.

The best paying doctor jobs are in rural areas that can afford it. I believe the top paying EM (emergency medicine) positions last year were in the Dakotas. Think drilling boom-towns.

And it can easily be a 5x multiplier, sometimes more.

They do literally pay almost 2x. And that's in towns where your dollar goes much, much further. It's effectively 5x. Doctors still don't want to go.

Guess it's time to offer 3x. It's how supply and demand work, right?

Ultimately, there are not enough doctors to meet demand. Raising wages will just move them around. The supply of doctors is inelastic due to limited residency slots.

You’re ignoring the back end where hospitals have to convince insurers to pay them that much.

Keep in mind, people have to pay for these services. Pay doesn't go up in a vacuum.

Hence why all the talk about "cheap" cost of living is lacking. It's missing many quality of life components that many people value, resulting in its low nominal prices.

If they're willing to pay. Doctors are very sensitive to the pay issue these days. I'd imagine there are a ton of poor folks out there that would happily get treatment, but won't pay when they get that bill in the mail.

I would do software development from a podunk town if I could make the same amount as I do in the bay area.

Yeah that's a dynamic I can't understand. Most software professionals talk about relocating away from the cities the first chance they get, but everybody else is rushing to the same cities that only software developers seem to be able to afford.

This dynamic extends beyond usa. Even in India, doctors command high salaries in rural areas, often 2-3x what they can in metropolitan cities.

I think people are more talking about working towns and cities that aren't SF levels of prices, which can be non rural towns of +100k people.

"Most" is probably not the case at all.

I have several friends who talk about moving somewhere cheaper, but way more of them are perfectly happy to live in an awesome city with lots of stuff to do.

The software engineers talk about it, but they never do it. Romanticising about moving to a simpler place is very different from actually doing it.

A developer is even more relocatable than the doctor. You can still work for a major company and you still have the big city market open to you, even if you live in a small town. Whereas for a doctor it's a major career change.

I'd happily do my software job remotely in a podunk town for just my current salary. The dollars would go almost twice as far.

My friend, live in a podunk town for a while before you take that bargin xD

Though, to be fair, there are a ton of awesome NON-podunk little towns that are a delight to live in.

I grew up in one, it'd be going home to the way life should be.

Serious question: do you have children? The quality of schooling in large swathes of the country is abysmal.

Unless you are shelling out a college tuition for a top-level private school for the connections that it gives, there's effectively no real difference in your public school options - absent completely abysmal warzone type places.

In any case, one will need to put in the effort to get one's children properly educated. A smaller school district probably gives more opportunities to experience a wider spectrum of activities anyway - I certainly wouldn't have been able to be a three sport athlete, take every shop class available, participate in math and geography competitions, and a whole host of other extra curricular activities in a bigger pool.

Your spouse can homeschool if you make that much.

Good news for you, there are tons of remote software jobs that allow you to live wherever you want.

And pay two thirds less. The qualifier is equal pay.

I've never seen a remote job that paid two thirds less. Some do pay less based on location but many don't.

I can choose 400k-500k compensation working at fang or I can choose 100-200k compensation working remotely.

its disappointing that medical education is reserved for the best and brightest that unsurprisingly want to live in nice places. I have a friend that would love to be a rural doctor but didn't have the grades. They would have probably been smart enough to pass and be a great doctor, but the profession would rather have the highest academic scores.