tossstone

I don’t think accusations of lying add anything productive to the conversation, but thanks. We have different circles of friends with different financial circumstances and that’s OK. There are plenty of stories if you would care to read more:

https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecoatinvestor/comments/1jayeai/...

Residency match rates for American graduates from American MD or DO programs are more like 93%. Also worth considering that thousands of Americans go abroad for medical school due to limited seats in the US. For American IMGs the match rate is only 70%. If you dig into things a little bit further, it’s actually worse than that because the figures do not include applicants who did not submit a rank list because they did not receive any interviews.

I agree that the vast majority are able to match into a residency program, but I certainly would not consider that “almost zero financial risk”

https://www.nrmp.org/about/news/2026/03/nrmp-releases-result...

If "only" 30% of graduates are graduating with over $300k in debt, that means that of the 30,000 graduates that graduate from both allopathic and osteopathic programs each year [1] there are almost 9,000 physicians that are high debt graduates. At high interest rates, that debt can easily grow by hundreds of thousands of dollars while you complete a residency program.

The resident salaries that you listed are an average taken across all specialties. Family Medicine is the lowest paid specialty with 2026 PGY-1 salaries at $58,500 (representing an increase of over 15% since 2021) [2] That is simply not enough to pay the cost of living in a state like Massachusetts where the median household income is more than double that [3] and the average rent in Boston metro is almost $40,000 annually [4]. Not only can you not afford to pay down your student loan debt, you are extremely likely to accrue additional consumer debt on things like credits cards or vehicles.

My main point is that training to become a doctor carries so much financial risk that it selects against folks from poor socioeconomic backgrounds that would otherwise make great physicians. In 2018 the AAMC published a study showing that 51% of medical school matriculants were from families in the top quintile for family income [5] and if I were a betting man, I'd guess that proportion has only increased.

1. https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator...

2. https://www.inspiraadvantage.com/blog/how-much-do-medical-re...

3. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSMAA672N

4. https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/market-trends/boston-m...

5. https://www.aamc.org/media/9596/download

Complicated question, speaking from the U.S. There are huge disparities in pay depending on specialties, and some specialties earn frankly far too much approaching $750,000 - $1,000,000 annual salary in some markets (think orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, interventional rediologists). The chance at obscenely high compensation convinces students to accrue huge amounts of debt and take on enormous personal risk. Meanwhile, few actually make it into these specialties and many end up in specialties with much lower compensation such as family and internal medicine. It's become a very high stakes system where the participants make huge sacrifices and take on enormous risk for enormous gain

Loans need to be repaid. I have many physician friends who graduated from medical school with 500k-750k in student loan debt (including debt from undergrad which compounded during medical school) with a combination of federal student aid as well as private loans anywhere from 8-10%. After graduating medical school, they completed 3-5 year residency programs earning somewhere in the ballpark of $50k-$60k salary. This is in an expensive northeast US market where such a salary barely covers basic living expenses, and as such their debt continued to compound. After completing residencies, they earn $175k-$200k salary which is about average for this area as an attending physician in their specialties (primary care related specialties like Family Medicine).

You do the math: over a 10 year repayment period with compound interest, their education cost them MILLIONS and they'll be well into their 40s before they start saving a dime for retirement. The cost and scarcity of medical education is extremely punitive to doctors and prices out many would-be great physicians. Many I know who have gone through this ended up regretting it due to the enormous financial burden they are saddled with for many years after becoming an attending.

Maybe folks believe these professions should be reserved to those who inherit great amounts of generational wealth.

I've lived in 3 states and none of them have required proof of citizenship to register to vote. You basically check a box that acknowledges that you are a US Citizen with the right to vote and that illegal registration carries penalties.

The Kia Telluride does not have a locking differential in the same sense as conventional 4x4 vehicles. In fact, the Kia Telluride comes with a multi-plate center clutch that allows for distribution of power between the front and rear wheels. When the clutch is fully engaged, in most cases there should be no slippage which means that power is distributed evenly (50/50) between the front and rear. However, there's always the possibility that the clutch can slip given enough of a torque differential between the front and the back. It can offer improved traction in poor road conditions.

A proper locking differential found in most traditional 4x4 vehicles/trucks, when engaged, physically locks the axles together which means they cannot spin at different rates. This is essential for many more rigorous off-road applications when you may have to rely on traction from a single wheel to get you unstuck.

This is exactly the type of misleading marketing that is described in many other comments. A clutch pack cannot physically lock axles together in the same way as a locking diff.

Email is preferred for me (no oauth) unless there is a particular need to access data on something like a Google account for the service to function

Agree. I see no reason why Google should be the only means to log in

I'm not debating the merits of renewables, I'm just stating that the population growth in Alberta is not linear. And the population IS growing by hundreds of thousands annually. To quote directly from Alberta population statistics:

"Alberta’s population growth continues to accelerate. In the 12 months preceding April 1, 2024, the province’s population expanded by 204,677 people, or 4.41%." [1]

"This represents a significant increase from the previous year (3.67% between 2022-23) and the highest April 1 year-over-year growth rate since 1981. Alberta’s population expanded by 49,138 residents over the first quarter of 2024, or 1.02%." [1]

The vast majority (over 160,000) of those new residents of Alberta were immigrants to Canada, driven by the federal government's massive immigration ramp-up. The immigration levels plan targets a continued increase in immigration through 2026 [2] and with Alberta having a comparatively low cost of living and very high quality of life, it's hard to believe that trend in population growth will not continue.

[1] https://www.alberta.ca/population-statistics

[2] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...

Alberta’s population growth trend in the last 5 years is anything but linear. It has accelerated significantly driven in large part by new to Canada immigrants and those escaping higher cost of living provinces like BC and ON.

Source: https://www.alberta.ca/population-statistics

Ontario contains almost half of Canada's population so that seems very plausible

We should have the data to study that since some countries decided to wait longer between doses. The UK and Canada focused on getting as many first-doses into arms as possible before folks were eligible for a second jab.

The cards are pretty small so I doubt there's enough space for an m.2. I would guess proprietary