I'm sure everyone here knows this, but for anyone else, use Sci Hub.

I think that most libraries in universities have annual subscriptions to these journals, and researchers there can read for free. That said, it's just another thing making higher ed more expensive and unobtainable for those outside of the bourgeoisie.

"I like the idea of communism, and the idea that knowledge should be common and not intellectual property is very relevant. That is especially true for information. Research articles are used for communication in science. But the word 'communication' implies common ownership by itself." Said by my superheroine Alexandra Elbakyan.

Wanna learn something that's really gonna boil your piss?

The entire scientific journal/paywall industry was pioneered by none other than arch-Zionist, Mossad asset, and Epstein-associate Robert Maxwell.

to do a phd and go into a job that actually helps the world i'm gonna have to take a 50%+ paycut

Imagine how many otherwise good, smart, inventive people are denied their ideas form becoming real because of this - and all of corporate academia.

So many walls - paywalls, social walls, ideological walls, investment walls that rob the future from it's youth. Remember the stories of Masters degrees being forced to work menial labor because no one would hire them? Few decades of that and you have generations of inspiration and creativity neutered. In porky speak - prevent competition from even realizing itself.

So much of our modern society is involved at a systemic level to forceably maintain the status quo.

I've given up on acedemia and my dreams after going through college and being denied denied denied through impossible entry level position requirements. So I went into the military to get experience and found out how much even more bullshit it all was. Especially western acedemia which was reduced to glorified grammar nazis who cared more about HOW things look and sound rather than WHAT the consequences were. More arrogant ass kissers and yes people of more arrogant ass kissers corrupted by promises of C-suite jobs and bonuses for participating in government level corruption. Even "retired" assholes kept coming back from their C-suite "retirement" jobs to carry on the corruption to it's next generation. Rotten to it's core.

Edit

Access to acedemia information is what got Aaron Swartz killed.

Honestly, while I wish I didn't live in it and hate the human toll, I'm fine with the western "garden" financializing itself into obsolescence and worse while the rest of humanity marches towards a brighter future. Whatever material gain occurs in the west, until the imperialist world system of the west dies off completely, will first be used to harm the rest of the world 1000x over before it is used for good, anyways.

This country will gladly run itself into irrelevance because of its cutthroat, dog-eat-dog ways.

Employers that are so picky that they demand the 5+ years of experience for entry level jobs…if they even hire entry-level at all anymore and claim that all employees need to work more for less pay because “we gotta compete with China” will have no right to complain when they actually do lose to China.