I don't think you'll ever sell that as a general proposition ("Let's all hose ourselves for the common good!" OK, you first), but there is clearly a 'tipping point' where that occurs.
It is common for guys who get whacked with some of the more generous post-marital settlements to react in exactly that way, and it makes perfect economic sense. If you tell a guy that 50 or 60 per cent of his gross will be taken off the top, that means that the after-tax impact of a one-dollar reduction in salary is 25 or 30 cents, if that. So we see the nuclear physicist deciding to go drive a pizza truck instead. He doesn't really lose that much, but he has thrown a spear at the system that did this to him. Meanwhile the society loses the services of a highly-trained nuclear physicist. So you can see that it's important to do this to as many men as possible, as quickly as we can.
"So we see the nuclear physicist deciding to go drive a pizza truck instead."
It doesn't happen exactly that way. I'm a microwave engineer at the point when experience is more valuable to a company than further degrees. I'm 47 and single. I just haven't met a CA babe who isn't spoiled rotten the past 20 or so years. So I date only gals who came from somewhere else and my minimum age requirement is 40. (I will forever kick myself in the butt about when I had the chance to get married in Spain when I was there with the AF) I had a cultural shock after being OS for 6 years. Eventually I turned to internet dating which is quite efficient (be careful, though, LOL). Have had a few affairs and made some fine women friends on a professional basis, but don't want to feel like I'm going to work when coming home! I DO want a gal with ideas beyond herself, though, and it works fine for me. But there are SO many women with kids and divorced husbands still supporting them on those sites. There are 100s of thousands, if not millions. You do get an insight. Do I want to be the live-in boyfriend of a gal who gets a "welfare" check from another guy? NO WAY! I live OK, and know of other straight guys in their 40's, 50's and 60's who do also.
Your reply was about a PhD underperforming. What I have done is find a niche in a company who is happy with me and I with them. Anything over 55, 60K gets the hell taxed out of it and with a limit on what can be put into your 401-K, why bother?
It is more important to be happy than worrying about a declining return on earnings.
I just know I'll have a KickAss good old time whenever I retire!