Every time I read one of those 'MD profession sucks' articles, I notice a common theme... all the doctors bitching are in well patrolled urban areas like Boston, NYC, LA, and SF where there's a glut of practicing doctors. Well, WTF did they expect? A shiny Mercedes with their sign on bonus when they're not really needed?! If doctors want to make the big bucks, they have to move to one of the small town, rural clinics where the internal medicine salaries can range from 250k to 500k.
In contrast, where are many of the highly paid lawyers, dotcomers, and consultants in those cities today? At the unemployment office whereas the doctors are still seeing patients. Let's see, when there was a shortage, during the 97-99 tech boom, the aforementioned professionals made top dollars, and during the bust, 2000 and up, they're struggling to make ends meet. Doctors are immune to the boom/bust cycles of the technology oriented work sectors unlike most other highly paid white collar professionals. So, why aren't these facts mentioned in those articles?