Most poor people I know would rather be rich than have a Phd. I don't know who you are around that would rather be the homeless person with multiple Phds.
People who are known to be geniuses in my experience just get exploited more. Same with people who are physically pretty or people who are athletes or people who can make good music. These people get exploited in various industries and while people on the outside looking in do want to be like them it is almost a credulous envy in a way.
A lot of artists, geniuses, die broke, homeless, without any true friends. A lot of famous people don't have any privacy ever. This isn't to say that people born wealthy don't have similar hardships too but the point I'm making is that people do look up to success but not everyone wants the prestige. In fact I would even argue that it's not so common to want the prestige in certain cultures which may explain why you see a lot of Nobel prize winners from some cultures more than others.
Yes winning a Nobel prize is prestigious and a lot of people want that. A lot of people also want to make millions of dollars. And I don't think more people want a Nobel prize than want to make millions.
Well, that's not something I recall claiming. I concur that most people would prefer to live a comfortable or at least tolerable life instead of being homeless, to a degree that would override a lot of other considerations including obtaining a degree. I've dropped out of college to work a job personally, so I definitely see this.
As to preferring to be very rich instead of having a degree, a big part of the charm of being rich is that you can then afford to get a degree. Most people who are rich seem to get degrees. It boosts their social standing among other rich people and lets them select more fulfilling careers.
I also think people do sometimes prefer status over money, hence the oversaturation of the fiction market, and why people often pursue humanities/liberal arts degrees instead of profitable ones like STEM or business. The "starving artist" sterotype exemplifies this.
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You make good points. Although I do think people want both status and money a lot of the time. Yes I would say there are people who choose status over money and so choose high status low money career paths.
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