Succeeding with a PhD

[Bibby]

I hear regularly about PhD-holders not making much.

The most common reason someone would get a PhD would be to become a tenure-track professor, and teaching is a very low-paying profession relative to the amount of education required to enter the field.

I found this about the PhD-holders who didn't attend the top schools not being able to get a good position at a school:

Highly desirable positions tend to be very competitive, and graduating from a top school is often the tie-breaker when there's a lot of competition. It also depends on what you're teaching: There are more people wanting to teach political science than computer science or IT, at least relative to the number of openings.