Delete comment from: Captain Capitalism
Aaron I am a physician and can only say that you would have to be crazy to enter Medicine. The effort vs payout is a very poor return unless you hit the right residency (specialty) at the right time. For fields like family practice and pediatrics you are better off being a plumber or teacher. Lawrence Kotlikoff has done the analysis and total employment earnings are higher in teaching and plumbing vs family medicine. Some fields like gynecologic oncology can pay quite well ($1 million plus year) but the window of those earnings is quite small and all specialties are vulnerable to getting whacked by cuts from Medicare. Thus you can enter a high payout specialty only to find it decimated by government rules changes. My own field of pathology has suffered through several of these in my 22 year career. By luck I managed to avoid these but if my timing had been poor I could have ended up unemployed for long periods of time. Of course Obamacare makes Medicine an even bigger crap shoot.
By the way I am a resident of Minnesota and am retiring this March. I have had it with the weather, the Socialism and the high taxes. I am moving South and retiring. Most of my colleagues would like to join me but are wage slaves due to their high spending and trophy wives and some even own horse farms.
Best of luck I enjoy reading your columns.
Dec 26, 2014, 10:10:31 PM
Posted to Before You Become a Doctor