[JamesBarney]

"I think you're wrong that the pay doesn't need to be competitive. " I would say the pay is competitive judging from the difficulty of gaining admission into these programs. Why do you think it isn't competitive?

"(and 5 to 8 of the best years of your life)" I'm not sure about a physics Ph.D. but most of my friends who are finishing up their Ph.Ds enjoyed their mid 20's more than the ones of us who decided to did the daily work grind.

[neltnerb]

Indeed, my friends who do postdocs at places like MIT never get more than $50k a year. That is definitely not competitive. You're getting compensation in a higher chance of your lottery ticket to getting a faculty job getting chosen, and people wouldn't accept such low salaries if there weren't some perceived trade-off value.