As for salary, there's always someone richer than you. If I blindly pursued money I wouldn't have made the life decisions I've made. To think your paycheck might impress me shows me just how little you understand about me, and just how far off your moral calculus is. I do poverty research to study how inequity affects development patterns and how we can alleviate poverty shock and build infrastructure in Third World Nations. Thats why I studied Economics and Anthropology, to study how to build up economies and to understand disaffected communities. I have a nice salary, its 6-figures, and with all my debate experience I have never had trouble wowing any board of directors. But at the end of the day I'm going to be an underpaid economics researcher, because thats what I want to do. Because I want to do something valuable with my life, but please, feel free to think your paycheck is going to earn you some measure of respect.