Either the system is broken, or some people are just gasp not motivated as much by money. There are quite a few internships in programming (just check out glas

Either the system is broken, or some people are just gasp not motivated as much by money. There are quite a few internships in programming (just check out glassdoor) that pay about as much as a tenure-track professor, and these days with all the shenanigans in academia I would be hesitant to make a judgement on which will provide better job security... So the economy rewards someone building facebook or groupon more than someone with a PHD and multiple post-docs doing basic research, and while the developers for said companies do add a tremendous amount of value, which is reflected in their sallary -- IMO it is more likely that DARPA or a similar government body is more likely to develop the next step in innovation. Siri was originally a government project, that was then commercialized from CALO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CALO Same goes for the internet.