"This is the enlightened case for why tenure exists. Academia requires intensive training for an uncertain future. As the joke goes, a doctoral student is one who foregoes present income so that they may forego future income. Universities are interested mainly in the superstars, but have to hire a bunch of promising mediocrities to get the best. If they simply fired everyone who turned out to be mediocre, very few people would ever enter to begin with."
"This is the enlightened case for why tenure exists. Academia requires intensive training for an uncertain future. As the joke goes, a doctoral student is one who foregoes present income so that they may forego future income. Universities are interested mainly in the superstars, but have to hire a bunch of promising mediocrities to get the best. If they simply fired everyone who turned out to be mediocre, very few people would ever enter to begin with."
I like this explanation.