Most of the people I know with PhD's did them while working many years after leaving university. I don'think I have met anyone who got a PhD to become an academic. No that's wrong I know of one person who got her PhD in film studies who did.
I possibly know more people with PhDs than without. All academics following the traditional route. And I'm very glad I am not one of them!
The PP who said people are postdocs for seven years is possibly in some sort of biology? The field I'm most familiar with you get two post docs/four years to prove yourself. If you don't have a tenure track job by then you need to bail. But it's one of those fields where (as I understand it) it's very clear who is good and who is not good enough, and anyone who is merely mediocre doesn't get that far. I can only think of think two post docs I've known well who don't have jobs. Not necessarily in the sort of place they'd choose to live, but employed nonetheless.
