It really isn&#x27;t. Food service jobs don&#x27;t require that you spend years and lots of money in order to qualify for them. Academia has really become a sort of pyramid scheme: lots of people going to grad school to support a few faculty who educate them to do faculty jobs that are increasingly scarce. A couple of decades ago, the deal was that you might have to adjunct for a year or two after grad school, but if you stuck it out, you&#x27;d have a decent chance of getting a proper job. Those days are gone, but somehow the folks going into grad school haven&#x27;t gotten the message yet. The only way the situation will improve is if people insist on being paid what they&#x27;re worth and otherwise withhold their labor.<p>Basically, don&#x27;t go to grad school unless you have a plan to do something other than becoming college faculty with it. And don&#x27;t take adjunct jobs unless you&#x27;re doing it for fun as a side gig.