If you were to log in, you'd be able to get more information on your fellow community member.
I agree with your viewpoint. However, salaries in the private sector follow market economies and their demands. It can be intellectually rewarding or used to justify another end, photography perhaps :)? Limited grant opportunities create an 'artificial' oversupply of research-PhDs exploring new ideas, granters expecting no return on investment as its knowledge enters the 'public domain'. The path you choose depend on your values, I see the private sector offering the flexibility to choose paths once achieving financial independence. Scientists in education need to teach an alternative funding model, and addressing a private sector has been a solution. There are many noted and financially successful R&D teams at IBM, Microsoft and Apple, and many biotechnology companies hungry for biological scientists with a caveat: computer savvy a must.Wonderful site!