"My best friend (PhD ten years, over a hundred scientific publications in molecular biology, brilliant man and EXTREMEMLY hard working) just turned forty two and has never made over $38,000 a year... "
That sounds extremely odd, since a grad student with a few publications can make more than that on top of full tuition. Starting salaries are double that.
Depends on the field... I know that is true for electrical or mechanical engineering, but not neurosciences with emphasis on moloecular biology... likewise you may not be aware of the ever increasing peroiod of the "post-doc"... the time from graduation with PhD to being offered a professorship at the entry level... when I researched grad school it was 4 years in neurosciences, when I graduated it was approaching 9, now it is over ten years... his is currently assistant to the Primary Investigator in a prolific lab at a very famous Ivy-League school. I abandoned the field my degree was in for greener pastures, and agree with the notion expressed elsewhere that the goal of any specialty should be to understand the business and lead to entrepeneurship...
That sounds extremely odd(...)
No, it doesn't. This is what postdocs make. This is also the reason why most graduate students and postdocs are foreigners. Americans, who are better informed than foreigners and are not limited by any visas, avoid academia.