<p>Forest for the trees? You single out the anecdote from a very old article which specifically compares being a physician with being a UPS driver in terms of salary. Nobody said anything about cushy or Ferraris or a mansion-except you. All the OP asked was whether attending medical school was worth it. And everybody’s compensation is getting worse-check out the data on attorneys, for example, for the last 20 years. It’s been straight downhill.</p>
<p>And you’re seriously comparing the minimal physical labor you do with that done by a package delivery driver? And you have people “pee, puke, poop, vomit, bleed, cough, sneeze on you regularly”? Where in the world do you work? I have a spouse and two siblings who are physicians and a niece in medical school. None of them have complained about these things occurring “regularly”-but yes, when you work with sick people, it will happen on occasion. You’ve described the job of a nurse aide-a truly grueling and thankless job-and a job that pays very poorly, if you’d like to compare. You’re the only physician-or more accurately, medical student- I’ve ever met who has made this claim of it being a “regular” occurrence… And you’re planning a career in academic medicine-so will be claiming that you face a career of “regularly” being excreted upon? Not likely, as we both know.
You made a choice-to attend medical school-and have decided to complain how awful it is compared to other jobs. Nobody made you go-it was your choice-and instead of admitting that yes, it is indoor work with very little heavy lifting(seriously, do you catch falling patients all day, every day?) you want to make the claim that being a physician is, in terms of physical rigor, the equal of any job on the planet. This I utterly reject.
And what do sales reps have to do with anything? Nobody-nobody-made you go to medical school. If it works for you great; but please spare me the lectures and the straw man arguments. You cited the UPS driver-and now the product sales reps-and want to now run away from your inapt comparison. You can’t have it both ways-complaining about physician compensation and working conditions-while at the same time declining to pursue other avenues of employment-e.g. UPS driver.</p>