The Top Evils of Capitalism
It replaces motivations.
It presents an illusory concept of "need."

Motivation Replacement
I have come to discover this phenomenon because I have been concerned of late with the idea of communal academic writing. I'll not go into why I'm so interested in this idea, but what I have discovered is that the biggest obstacle to, say, co-authoring an academic article, is the fact that most universities do not count an article with multiple authors for tenure, or if they do, they only count the first name that appears. In this philosophical era where the idea of one person's subjective perspective being anywhere close to reality is laughable, trying to address this by working with someone else seems like common sense. The problem is that when a professor goes to write an article, the motivation of furthering knowledge or providing a more accurate perspective is replaced by the motivation of getting tenure and providing a unique perspective which (accurate or not) will generate a lot of buzz.

Illusory Need
I have been supporting a household of 5 people now (my wife, 6 mo old son, and my in-laws) for less than $40K. We indulge quite a bit in eating out and traveling. Where is this hyper-inflated desire for a high paying job coming from?

A Thought
How about getting a job that just pays the bills and gives you the opportunity to do scholarly work for the correct motivation?

Obstacles to Said Thought
* No access to academic databases. Can you say EBSCO? Not unless you're attached to a University.
* How many people present papers at the MLA conference as independent scholars? Probably close to the amount of people who cross the Atlantic without a boat.
* If you can't find a job that allows for reading, etc. during the day, you have to cut into family time to do research. How is this any different though from grading papers at home?