"If you PhD"...
So to summarize - the only worthwhile PhDs are those which essentially offer cut-price labour to private companies? Postgraduate research is now just a sweat-shop for the intellectual elite? What of those disciplines that aren't really of any immediate interest to the vast, vast majority of private ventures?

Out of interest - what experience do you actually have with the funding of Doctorates? I'm assuming you have facts and figures to hand demonstrating that private investment is more focussed, more beneficial to society than public funding, and is not driven primarily by the likelihood of a decent return on their investment. Obviously you're not speaking from a position of ignorance, as doing so might make you look like you merely had something of a chip on your shoulder.

Finally - you don't help pay for anyone's PhD, and never have. You pay your tax, at which point it is no longer your money - your feelings on where it should be directed are a matter of utter irrelevence.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Thu 21 Oct 2010, 2:05, Reply)