The average doctor in the U.S. makes $350k a year. Why?
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
If you study other subjects such as engineering, you may spend +10 years to get the top qualifications (undergrad, masters and PhD is 10 years, many will do postdocs as well) and still will spend your lifetime chasing jobs, constantly reinventing yourself, and most people will never make as much as a medical specialist consistently.
Healthcare in US is lucrative.
It takes similar effort and abilities to get a STEM phD, but the researchers working on drug discovery or mitigating the climate crisis or whatever other socially-beneficial thing make 1/3rd what an MD makes. The power of the AMA in guiding the entire healthcare system to the benefit of MDs shouldn't be underestimated.
> One unfair, inflammatory and accurate answer would be that they like money.
this is some nate silver levels of getting high on yourself.
/s