[kragen]

No. Ponzi schemes are zero-sum; that's why they're doomed to failure when they promise above-unity average returns. Academia discovers knowledge; once the knowledge is discovered, everyone everywhere benefits from it, but especially in academia. It's as far from zero-sum as you can get!

The "leverage" of N Ph.D. students per [insert desired definition of success] position amplifies the effectiveness of academia considerably, but academia would still work more or less the same way without it.

(I am not now and have never been an academic, although I've spent a fair bit of time with academics. Consequently I am both reasonably-well-informed and minimally biased.)

[qqq]

I upvoted you, but one thing: if you wanna be unbiased, show not tell it! Saying you're not biased isn't much good at all. Just say stuff that isn't biased.

[kragen]

For most things I agree that showing is better than telling, but bias is different. If someone is in a position to judge whether my point of view is biased, then they already have a clearer idea of the truth than I do, so they don't benefit from reading my expression of that point of view. It's the people who don't already know what I have to say (or don't already know that it's false, if I am in error) who need to know how biased I am.

So I gave some information about my background, which I hope will give readers a better chance of forming an accurate idea of my state of objectivity and ignorance.