In my experience, it is not really the money in the corporate job market that drives these people away from research: Not USA, but I know some really highly ta

In my experience, it is not really the money in the corporate job market that drives these people away from research: Not USA, but I know some really highly talented physicists who now work as rather badly paid software developers. Lesson: outstanding skills in and passion for physics not necessarily tranfer into high pay in the corporate job market. It is rather the politicization and lack of perspective in academia that makes these people leave academia: doing your PhD/doctorial degree in physics already bears a high opportunity cost, so you really do that because you have a deep passion for physics and not because you expect a high pay.