I'm frugal by nature, and from Eastern Europe. How comfortable a life can one afford with $60k/yr or $30k/yr in the US? With this level of income, would you actually find any essential things or services lacking in life?
In other words, what's the actual, practical need for a person (or a smaller nuclear family) in the US to actually earn $400k a year?
Similar to the US, university-employed PhDs definitely tend to make less than many industry professionals in my country as well. Then again, it is nonetheless a very acceptable standard of living. As civil servants, life is very stable (as compared to e.g. one-person companies), and they are by no means poor. Most importantly, though, a doctorate program will very probably train you into a better, more analytical thinker (I've seen very few examples of the contrary).
For that reason, I've always found it questionable when PhD vs no PhD is debated solely on the basis of expected income. Maybe I should remove my pink glasses, but there is, still, a little more to it, isn't it?
The US is big in every sense of the word, cost of living varies hugely in different areas. There are places where $60k is more than enough to live nicely, and there are places where $60k would mean sharing an apartment, and being very careful about spending your money.
One thing to keep in mind is that you might $100k+ in student loan debt by the time you actually get your phd. So for that reason you go for the higher paying job.
Note that those figures vary wildly by field and institution.
The lowest salary offer I got on my faculty job search, with an apology re: salary bias against folks without clinical degrees, was half again what's quoted there.
> For that reason, I've always found it questionable when PhD vs no PhD is debated solely on the basis of expected income. Maybe I should remove my pink glasses, but there is, still, a little more to it, isn't it?
There's certainly an argument to take a pay cut to do a PhD if you enjoy doing it.
The thing is - go ask real PhD students 2 years into their PhD whether they're enjoying themselves. Given the 50% drop-out rate, you can probably guess what the answers will be...
> How comfortable a life can one afford with $60k/yr or $30k/yr in the US? With this level of income, would you actually find any essential things or services lacking in life?
It really depends where in US. $60k/yr in NYC or SF or Seattle will be hard -- you'll need to get housemates to share the costs of housing. But $60k/yr is some small town in Vermont or Montana is comfortable in my guesstimate.
The question is not "comfortable", but "how comfortable", which is an important distinction.
Does comfortable mean being able to find specialist doctors? Or even just enough doctors? Being able to eat a variety of fruits/vegetables year round? Constant supply of avocados? Being able to live near family? How secure is one's income, or how many possible buyers are there for what you are selling? How are the schools for one's kids? Will the school community be of acceptable quality?
Of course, these answers will vary person to person.
In other words, what's the actual, practical need for a person (or a smaller nuclear family) in the US to actually earn $400k a year?
Similar to the US, university-employed PhDs definitely tend to make less than many industry professionals in my country as well. Then again, it is nonetheless a very acceptable standard of living. As civil servants, life is very stable (as compared to e.g. one-person companies), and they are by no means poor. Most importantly, though, a doctorate program will very probably train you into a better, more analytical thinker (I've seen very few examples of the contrary).
For that reason, I've always found it questionable when PhD vs no PhD is debated solely on the basis of expected income. Maybe I should remove my pink glasses, but there is, still, a little more to it, isn't it?