Why does any Ph.D. student at any but the top graduate schools believe that he will get tenure at any university? The odds are so far against him, and have been for a generation, than he ought to realize that he is about to waste his most precious resource – time – on a long-shot. Investing five or more years beyond the B.A. degree, except in a field where industry hires people with advanced degrees, is economic stupidity that boggles the imagination.
As a society we massively overproduce people with "high" (e.g. theoretical or abstract) skills. Whether it's astrophysics PhDs or even just Bachelors of Engineering, there simply isn't the work that needs doing to justify the investment in educating them (us!).
Meanwhile, try getting a plumber or a plasterer. The UK govt. has the objective of getting 50% of school leavers into university. Formal education beyond a certain point is suboptimal both for the individual and for society as a whole in probably most cases. The great irony is that this is a Labour government, you'd think if anyone realized the value of traditional trademen, it would be them...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north427.html