Been looking at some older salary data and honestly, the gap between what certain professions pull in versus the average American worker is kind of wild. Like, we're talking about jobs that are notoriously overpaid by almost any reasonable standard.

So the baseline here is that the average US salary was around $60k back in 2022. But then you've got anesthesiologists making $302k a year, surgeons at $347k, orthodontists hitting $216k. I get that these require serious training and education, but when you're making nearly six times the average, it starts to feel like the math doesn't quite add up.

The interesting part is that it's not just medical professionals. You've got CEOs averaging $246k, lawyers at $148k, financial managers pulling $166k. And here's where it gets spicy -- some of these roles don't even require the same level of education as doctors. Marketing managers earn $158k and they're basically facilitators, not creators. Sales managers make $150k but they're not actually selling anything themselves, just managing people who do.

Then there's the opinion economy. Political scientists, economists, brand strategists -- these folks are earning well into the six figures for essentially providing their interpretation of data. Like, we're paying them serious money for educated guesses that could easily be wrong.

What's wild is how this breaks down when you look at actual value creation. Dentists are considered overpaid at $172k, but they're doing actual hands-on work. Meanwhile, lobbyists are pulling $111k to basically convince politicians to do what their clients want, and people still think that's fair compensation.

The overpaid jobs conversation really highlights how compensation isn't always tied to actual contribution or difficulty. Some roles have massive salary premiums just because of market dynamics, credential gatekeeping, or the fact that they're in industries that can afford to pay. Whether you think these professions deserve their paychecks probably depends on your perspective, but the numbers definitely suggest we're rewarding some skills way more generously than others.