Isn't medicine like this to a degree? The interns and resident make very little per hour, work long hours and have little control over anything.
Sounds like apprenticeship as well.
Why do people put up with it? Because its very difficult to leave and start a competing enterprise. There's either a contract that locks you in or licensing that locks you out.
Or you need government funding to compete with those who have government funding, so you must suck up to the powers that be, who are all in bed together.
Not at all. Interns and residents have a reasonably high probability [1] of becoming fairly well-compensated licensed physicians if they choose to follow their program through to the end. This isn't an argument about long and even grueling apprenticeships with modest compensation. It's about how even those who make it through such an apprenticeship in some professions will mostly not find a job at the end--which isn't the case with doctors.
BTW, I'm not sure I believe the drug dealer/actor/pro athlete thought really applies to academia--even if it's true that PhD degrees in many fields probably don't have a great ROI and aren't likely to result in a tenured position.
[1] I don't know the numbers but I have no reason to think a lot of people, especially from better programs, are forced out during internship or residency.
Sounds like apprenticeship as well.
Why do people put up with it? Because its very difficult to leave and start a competing enterprise. There's either a contract that locks you in or licensing that locks you out.
Or you need government funding to compete with those who have government funding, so you must suck up to the powers that be, who are all in bed together.