Honestly, from the stories I hear... Obviously,the money is one factor, but even if people got a little bit more money, they would still go for a PhD (at least

Honestly, from the stories I hear... Obviously,the money is one factor, but even if people got a little bit more money, they would still go for a PhD (at least in europe, where you don't need to go under debt so much, if you need to). The problem is that a lot of people don't even receive more money than people with Msc or even less. That's just too bad (even if in some countries this is not only illegal, but people actually follow the law - which is not something you should take for granted). But even after the money consideration... you still have all the "lost credibility" in the system, because the institutions are not properly funded, and also because science is very dependent on grants,politics, and stupid criteria + nepotism and corruption inside the institutions, etc. That goes beyond PhD applications to even "who can sell the coffee in campus". On PhD apps, I will never forget when one of my housemate just said to me that he would leave the country because one teacher said to him in advance that he would not enter on PhD, because everything was bought out. I think this is only the ""beginning"" of at least 10+ years of colleges having a hard time/ losing credibility year after year (sometimes because they are failing, and other times because they dare to have opinions different than people like Musk, which is not fair for academia). Either way, should I feel sorry for them? For the institutions, sure. But for the people who rule the institutions right now? My only fear is that they will be substituted by even worse individuals.