I have spent the last X years studying hard and earning good grades. I still have nearly 5 years (planning on getting a PhD after this terminal MSc) left of edu

I have spent the last X years studying hard and earning good grades. I still have nearly 5 years (planning on getting a PhD after this terminal MSc) left of education ahead of me. Why do I do this? Because it makes me entitled to a higher pay? No. I do this because I enjoy studying. Am I entitled to a higher pay? No! But I have spent the last X years NOT earning an income. The longer you are working to amass a certain skill set the longer you defer income you could have earned. It would be nice to recoup that. Not everyone can do what I (and my fellow) peers can do and thus we have some sort of leverage in an interview. I demand X, they offer Y and then I can negotiate because I have certain skills they want. If they want skill set Z and there are 100 people lining up in front of the building with exactly the same skill set they can just say find the first person that agrees to their abhorrent demands. Does a higher education make you entitled to a higher pay? No. It's all about supply and demand. This post has become kind of ranty, long, and unstructured. Sorry.