Don't get the wrong impression from that though. Professors absolutely do NOT on average make enough money. Terence Tao is a rare case who have the potential to have their name lasted for the next thousand years in proof and theorem (emphasize potential). He's literally one of those "one in a millions" genius thing. If anything, paying for one of the best guy in the world 400k a year might be a wee bit too far on the low side ...

There is a general consensus that Terrence Tao is on a whole other level than any other mathematician alive. Compared to the average salary of baseball, basketball, football and soccer players, his salary is pathetically low.

Oh, it may be that those math professors considered the best will have their salaries approach those of sport stars while median pay for those who teach classes continues to drop.

This seems like part of the general trend to value the "rock stars" of every field while diminishing the field in general. Could mathematics get by with just the fifty or however many people there are now who are "truly on the next level" (or whatever is said). Perhaps when colleges have replaced with moocs (an appropriate name if you know rpgs).

> This seems like part of the general trend to value the "rock stars" of every field while diminishing the field in general.

This is precisely the topic of Tyler Cowen's Average is Over[0]:

> Cowen forecasts that modern economies are delaminating into two groups: a small minority of highly educated and capable of working collaboratively with automated systems will become a wealthy aristocracy; the vast majority will earn little or nothing, surviving on low-priced goods created by the first group, living in shantytowns working with highly automated production systems.

Cowen's blog, Marginal Revolution[1], is also worth a read.

0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_is_Over

1: http://marginalrevolution.com/

It's also extremely lower than what he could win if he went to "the dark side" and started working in finance or any other non-academic company.

Where I live in Canada, there are professors who aren't even close to the same caliber of proficiency or importance as Dr. Tao and earn more. Granted, they represent a small percentage of professors, but the point is that top end professor do end up making quite a bit of money.