[sykick]

I understand the gist of what you are saying but consider this. Are there enough pizza management positions to absorb the number of adjuncts? I don't think so and I know you were just using Dominos as an example. If the set of all underpaid, abusive adjuncts suddenly entered the marketplace what consequences would there be? Are there enough positions? Would more less intelligent people be unemployed or have their wages decrease?

Overall, though you are right. There is way too much participation in graduate school in relation to the job market for those skills. However, this fact does not justify treating people poorly and this is where labor market regulation comes into play. Unfortunately we Americans, in the form of our elected officials, have decided that such regulation is too burdensome.

[seibelj]

There aren't enough pizza management positions but unemployment is at an all-time low - even if adjuncts find manual labor beneath them, there are plenty of restaurants, paralegal, office labor, and other semi-skilled / unskilled jobs that they would be fit for.

My critique is that adjuncts see university employment as the One True Path when there are a multitude of other careers available, if only they would give up their teaching dreams.

[sykick]

Yes, I understand that to be your point and I overall agree with it. However if all of those people tried to gain employment elsewhere there are side effects.

A friend of mine with a Ph.D. in math and a Master's degree in electrical engineering works in industry in data science. He once told me that he would not want to hire people with a Ph.D. to do non research. He said they just have a hard time fitting into an environment where most other people aren't as insightful/perceptive.

Can people with the minds/attitudes/skillset of adjuncts fit into the workplaces you mention? Even if they could would it be useful? What side effects happen to the less intelligent who also compete for such jobs.

Whatever the answers are to this it does nothing to obviate the need for better labor market regulation.

[otoburb]

>>A friend of mine with a Ph.D. in math and a Master's degree in electrical engineering works in industry in data science. He once told me that he would not want to hire people with a Ph.D. to do non research.

Does this mean that he considers himself an outlier (assuming he's also doing non-research activities), or that he feels that PhD holders need an extra high "tolerance" for many (most?) of us who don't hold a PhD?

I'm not sure where or how labour market regulation will help in this specific instance.

[sykick]

My reference to labor market regulation was aimed at adjunct labor. Such people should be paid better and I believe everyone should have affordable access to the healthcare system.

He considers himself and others with a Ph.D. in non research roles to need extra high tolerance. It's just his opinion and others may have better experiences. I was ABD in math when I quit (All But Dissertation). I spent one year in industry programming and it was hard for me. Obvious solutions were ignored and people tended to make issues seem bigger than they really were. I would be a bad employee and that's why I went to teach at a community college. I'll suffer the lower pay for greater autonomy and be in an environment were it's hard for really dumb decisions to ruin my day. I'm not an adjunct and in my system adjuncts are paid pro-rata and have pro-rata benefits too.

[nradov]

There are about 700,000 adjuncts and 60,000 pizzerias in the US.