>>12160786Define "useful". The entire point of universities is that they enable research to be done which would not be funded by the private sector because it's unlikely to pay out directly, but which might still have beneficial effects to society on a more general level or over longer timescales. Knowledge might also be argued to have value in itself, regardless of what that can be applied to.
On the level of the individual, a PhD is more or less just a job, albeit one with much more freedom and less responsibilities than most actual jobs. And you do get paid, usually not a huge amount, but at least here it's tax-free and starting salaries in sciences aren't sky-high anyway. The concern of what happens afterwards is a real one, but it's not as daunting as people make it out to be. If you want a career in research you need a PhD, but even if not you've still got many other options afterwards, and quite a few of the larger companies will start you a little higher on their corporate ladder than someone with just a bachelor's. Although it is true that it would be better to just work in the industry for the equivalent time if your end goal was industry, PhDs are usually done by people who think they might want to give academia a try.
So more or less it's just dipping your feet into academia without committing to it. If you absolutely know what you want to do and/or that you don't want to work in academia, then no shit it's a bad idea.
