Maybe I didn't ruin the medical labor market after all

In a recent post I remarked on a Forbes blog post by a medical student at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School who proposed that it would be better if the medical Match, the NRMP, didn't exist, because then medical students would be able to freely choose the job they wanted. That's how free markets work, as she understands them.

Now, in the same blog, three of her classmates point out that things might not work that way...Why The Residency Matching System For Newly Minted M.D.'s Still Works

And (still in the same Forbes blog) another medical student, Jack DePaolo responds similarly: Sorry, Medical Students, But You're Not Entitled To Your Dream Job

All in all, this subsequent discussion is good news, it means that we economists aren't doing quite as bad a job explaining to the general public (and to medical students) how markets work and what they do, as it might have appeared from that first contribution.