I totally agree with your first point. But I stand by my case. I didn't say "money doesn't matter", I said "I want to have enough, rather than as much as possib

I totally agree with your first point. But I stand by my case. I didn't say "money doesn't matter", I said "I want to have enough, rather than as much as possible". $50k/year means that you get something like 3000€/month. Early career researcher with faculty position are paid less than that in France, and it lasts years and years before you get to this salary level. And is you don't get a full professor or senior researcher position, you won't ever go much higher. A lot of people, if not most people, have children while earning less than 3000€/month and have no money problems. On your second point, the problem is that even if you have enough money to live between temporary positions, not being able to get a position at some point is a huge red flag in your application file, and this kind of gap are often fatals in competitive recruitment process, as the people in charge of the recruitment are looking for ways to discard applicants. I'm really not saying you are wrong as I don't think so, my point is to say that the problem you highlight (salary level) is not the one that needs to be addressed to "repair the system".