<i>&gt; One particular sleight of hands is perpetuating the myth that the financial commitment when entering medschool is akin to taking a risk. It is decidedly not because the payoff is virtually guaranteed.</i><p>That&#x27;s my argument. That the payoff is virtually guaranteed precisely <i>because</i> of the supply controls via licensing.<p>A Canadian friend gave me a kind of counterexample: Canada decided it was at risk of running out of X (some profession, specialty doctor I think), so they pulled levers to ensure a bunch of students trained in that. Those students graduate, oversupply, salaries crater, too bad for them.<p>It&#x27;s not only the monetary cost as a risk, but the opportunity cost of entering a profession that requires extended training.<p>These are people&#x27;s lives. Maybe they should be paid less, but it seems pretty shitty to say &quot;We need you to do this really important job really well, so train really hard and then...&quot; (you have some security)|(cross your fingers and hope the labor market hasn&#x27;t changed while you were in a decade of school)?