i still think people who gripe about being a doctor choose their unhappiness. for example, look at option e -- if you view your patients as ungrateful and litigious, you're probably going to be less happy. in reality, some of your patients are ungrateful and litigious, but most aren't. how you view it is all a matter of perspective. as for the rest, other people work hard, too, and still make less money. doctors also have much more autonomy than your average employee, and they don't get laid off. the $200k in debt from school amounts to about $20k a year in loan repayment, which still puts fp docs above most even high wage earners. yeah, residents are overworked, but they make $40 to $50k a year, which is more than i make now.
let's look at other job families. my sister has a ph.d. in comparative literature, which took her about 7 years to get. through a combination of hard work and luck, she got a tenure track job and then earned tenure but still would top out at about $60k. however, her husband (an accountant) got transferred and couldn't find another job in their city, so they had to move. now she's an adjunct at a local school with no benefits and really low pay in spite of that ph.d.. now try to telling me that it's so hard to be an fp doc with that guaranteed employment pretty much anywhere and $120k salary.