> Speaking from a student's perspective, I am not basing what I plan to study in college on the salaries that profession makes. Those of us who want to be in academia are usually not the same people who pay a lot of attention to money. I do not want to study economics to make money, but to study economics.
Please excuse me, but I am going to have to call BS on this comment. What kind of car do you drive? How expensive are your clothes? What do you eat for dinner? What is your debt situation? All of these choices provide some indication of your expected life-time income. Would you really contiunue your college education if you knew you would earn the same income as the lowest skilled workers? You might for consumption reasons, but most people would not. > Also, people who have studied a subject for four years and realize it pays peanuts are probably unwilling to change majors, because a low-paying degree is better than no degree at all. I disagree. The forgone income from writing a history disertation is likely to be quite high: 2-3 years (at least) of forgone income plus additional debt. Because the small liklihood of getting a job after getting your degree, on average, abandoning the degree is worth more than getting the degree. In fact, a friend of mine recently left grad school in history after heading up his school's search for a part-time adjuct slot. He said the CVs were glowing.
