I'll give you credit, you've done it this entire conversation starting when you compared a public university to a free-enterprise, you then changed topics from an athletics dicussion to comparing faculty salaries at a prestigious private university and a public school. Now you're trying to frame adjunct professors in the same vein as part-time shift workers at McDonalds. The higher education world is horribly political, corrupt and entirely based on subjectivity when it comes to hiring entry-level or adjunct professors.

I'm in favor of meritocracy, there are adjuncts out there who are just as qualified teachers with a stronger base of experience in industry. That's a job that universities depend on to function and require a part-time committment at a full-time level for large swaths of the year. There are too many variables to discuss here, but a living wage is virtually nothing and in a true free-market would be the norm.
[Post edited by soflahokie at 03/10/2020 9:00PM]