> Max Plank institutes seem a fine model to me. They are, but aim to solve a very different problem. MPI researchers are free to focus on research without havi

> Max Plank institutes seem a fine model to me. They are, but aim to solve a very different problem. MPI researchers are free to focus on research without having to do half-assed teaching and supervising. They're still subject to the same market-forces ("up or out", "publish or perish", etc.) as everyone else. If anything, they're even more competitive -- virtually all post-docs would love to do nothing except churning out as many papers as possible, after all. It'd be a different situation if there weren't just MPIs with people doing research exclusively but also non-research jobs at universities. Then the bottom 80% of all PhDs could earn their money teaching the millions of undergraduates enrolling each year instead of chasing an elusive dream (read: tenured faculty job).