I'm currently in a Ph.D. program. The pay is still very low, the workload is perpetual, and every summer I have to somehow find a job or some other source of money (like now) --- but it means that I can direct my own labor most of the time. Teaching isn't perfect, but I think the service I provide is more useful and good than most of the other things I've done.
More importantly, though, it's the one profession I can see myself in. I really enjoy doing research and, as far as I can tell, there are no private sector think tanks for Marxist literary studies. Of course, I have no illusions about the job market I'll face in 2-3 years.
Shag: btw, why do YOU do it? when i went to grad school, my $8000 per semester scholarship was more than I'd ever made, per hour, than any of the $6/hr jobs I'd had. Even factoring in 30 hr work weeks for one slavemaster prof. Similarly, even the small change gigs where I assigned only written essay assignments still worked out to be better than $6/hr even factoring in grading. When I moved to florida and found out that the local comm colleges were willing to pay a big old $1600/ semester, I got a "real" job and said: fuck that noise. I had options, though. I suppose in rural settings, it's hard to come by much else so the adjunct job is better than nothing? >
-- Best,
Jordan