Time for a truth bomb. PhDs are a pyramid scheme in America. There are far more PhD training spots than tenure track faculty positions for them for when they graduate after a nearly a decade or more of cheap but hard labor for principal investigators who abuse and exploit them.

It’s actually quite frankly outrageous that large academic institutions continue this practice so irresponsibly. I thought they were supposed to be focused on promoting a more just and equal society yet the research they churn out is a product of essentially indentured servants.

I saw firsthand how MD/PhDs in research labs would joke about how fortunate they are to have the MD because if it was just the PhD they would have to risk slaving away so hard for 7 years in the hopes of getting a first author Nature or Science paper or risk being homeless.