🚀 go-pugleaf

Dan Walker wrote:

> Michael, I couldn't agree with you more.

Why thank-you.

> Let's kill two birds with one stone. Trash the archaic
> concept of a "PhD degree" and a "PhD student". The Free
> Market demands it --- supply exceeds demand. But the work
> in the labs still needs doing. So, rather than doing the
> work as Phd students, the same people can be hired on as
> Advanced Research Technicians (ARTs). They can be paid
> whatever the Free Market says they're worth...well, at
> least within the constraints of the minimum wage law.

I'm not convinced.  The designation, Ph.D. is useful - it attests to
an individual's ability to do independent research.  The writing of a
thesis is useful.  I'm not even sure that oversupply is a problem.
When I said that I was earning about $4 per hour, I wasn't complaining,
after all I will have a Ph.D. at some point, rather I was pointing out
the fallacy in saying that graduate students earn $20 per hour because
TA salaries are $20 per hour.  The problem is in the way that grad students
are paid for the work that they do.  I think that if grad students are
going to be working in labs, they should get paid for such.  This would
probably send the TA wages down, but that wouldn't be a bad thing, since
they are artificially high anyway.

Michael Kyba