How is 175K not absurd? Only a white collar engineer in SF would say that's a piddly salary. Wake me up when your doctor friend has to commute in from Stockton.
Out of curiosity then, what would you consider appropriate salaries for GPs, general surgeons, and specialized surgeons like neurosurgeons, orthopods, or ENT?
Keeping in mind that medical school costs an extra $250k (whether in debt to sallie mae or paid for by mom and dad), and the post-bac education timelines are 7 years for GPs (4+3), 9 years for surgeons (4+5), and 11 years for neurosurgeons (4+7).
Right now the price is set by a government granted monopoly which determines supply. Many people here believe a more correct way to decide this is through the free market.
It's not absurd because of the costs of becoming a doctor, both direct costs and opportunity costs. By the time heavily indebted doctors can hang out their shingles, professional peers have been working almost ten years, racking up a million dollars or so in gross earnings.
For some perspective. A 22 year old college graduate can make $175k per year in total comp with a CS degree working for Facebook or Google. To repeat that. A 22 year old with a BS degree can make $175k per year with absolutely no experience whatsoever.
A $175,000 is close to top compensation in our field. The average software engineer(obviously not just out of school) earns around $96,000. The average GP earns $211,000 and the average specialist earns $411,000.
Don't forget that it's also standard to have accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars by the age of 30. What are you, some kind of pathetic loser outside the Software Master Race making the median US salary of about 35000?
