Why do we need Masters, and PhDs and so many academic papers?

Source: www.qcc.cuny.edu

It 2.30 in the morning, and I just finished editing the 4th time the two academic papers on my to-do-list for today. 

Theoretically speaking, this kind of work is one of my favourite freelancer assignment because it gives me inspiration for new articles and researches, and it can also come with some free articles and even books necessary for eventual improvements. But it also brings a lot of frustrations, when I realize how much behind I am in terms of pursuing my own academic researches. 

Tonight, I have another frustration though: Why so many people around the world really want to pursue an academic career when obviously they don't have any calling for that? A couple of years ago, it was almost unacceptable to do not go to college. At least in my family was and my mother could not accept that her children are not going to university. Nowadays, if you don't apply for a master, PhD and at least one post-PhD scholarship, you can be considered an intellectual failure. And so you can encounter the incredible situation only a couple of years ago when people in their 30s - late or early, does not matter too much - without a single day of real time work. 

This time, I will not start talking about my reasons to get my PhD (it is a new blog after all and I have thousand of topics that I would love to talk about soon). My main problem tonight is represented by all those people that for a visa in the West or a better family and social status or some more $$ on the salary or for increasing the marriageability chances or for who knows what non-academic reasons take themselves seriously enough to apply for post-graduate studies.

Did you ever heard about companies specialized in ghost writing master and PhD thesis? I did and I hope to write more about them one day. Did you heard about big freelancer network where fresh delivered master or doctoral thesis are auctioned for 100-150$ or even less? What about when the scholar-in-process decides to write his or her own thesis? Good plan, but be sure that you spent some years learning how to properly use the language you should use for writing the thesis. And that you, as an extraordinary writer you want to be understand what you are writing about. 

Otherwise, you may need to hire someone to translate your incoherent thoughts into an intelligible language. 

Dear student, seriously, why you want so much to have this prestigious piece of paper? Is it so important to add the 'Ph.D' on your business card for a title that cannot be yours because you don't have the mind and the training and the patience for being a scholar. 

Or maybe it is time for more serious academic policies based on a strict selection of the candidates for such high academic titles? Otherwise, if I consider my latest editing experiences, it seems that a composition of the 1 grade can have more academic relevance than 25% of the 'scholarly' papers produced by PhD and master candidates.