Friday, February 01, 2008

poverty in science

I found out last night that a friend is eligible for food stamps. It was rather disturbing. My friend has a PhD, and he has a perfectly normal job as a postdoc. Unfortunately, he also has a wife and two kids. Fortunately, this is just a temporary situation for him.

But seriously, how is the average household supposed to cope? Childcare is crazily expensive in this country (not to mention healthcare and other things). How is a man/woman supposed to get a family and kids if someone has to stop working the moment the kid comes along?

Conclusion: poor grad students aren't really poor. Wait till they become poor postdocs.

1 comment:

RhymeAndReason said...

Is graduate school an act of investment or an act of consumption? Youth squandering away years when their minds are the most flexible, taking a loan of freedom - trading less freedom in the future for more freedom now. Like so much credit card debt.