It seems to be a paradox. The cost of healthcare in the US is outrageously high, and medical staff salaries are rising accordingly. According to conventional economic logic, such high incomes should attract a large influx of talent. But the reality is—medical personnel are always in short supply, and the market seems to have failed.

Why is that? The key point is that the US healthcare labor market is not a free market at all. The three major industries—healthcare, education, and law—are severely distorted. They operate under a highly regulated "licensing + guild-like" system—extremely high entry barriers, strict licensing requirements, and artificially limited number of practitioners.

Under this system, no matter how much money is spent or how high wages are offered, new entrants find it very difficult to break through that invisible wall. Existing practitioners maintain monopolies through qualification controls, preventing new blood from entering, which naturally limits talent supply.

Economist Hayek's market theory from back then seemingly did not anticipate this situation. Essentially, it is the combined effect of industry barriers in healthcare, education, and law, leading to this bizarre phenomenon—spending a lot of money but failing to secure enough resource supply.