>i think this depends on what the alternative career/job would be compared to grad school.
This, the economy was shit when I graduated, I wasn't interested in a phd, but strongly considered getting a masters, and would have likely been financially better off had I stayed in school those extra two years instead of graduating into a horrible job market and losing that fresh graduate advantage when applying for jobs once it finally got moving again. In retrospect, I would have much rather lived a college lifestyle and did research/ta type stuff instead of doing the tech support type jobs I ended up with to make ends meet.
if you had the option of getting into a well-payed, cushy tech job grad school would result in less personal/financial freedom.
if (like me) you didn't have that option out of undergrad, grad school was comparatively a period of great freedom. * i made enough on research/TA stipends that i lived a slightly-fancier-than-my-undergrad lifestyle that wasn't too far behind what my classmates that became teachers were living. * TONS of freedom with respect to how I wanted to work and having full control of my schedule
I feel like grad school gave me a pretty idealistic way to spend my mid 20s. And (luckily) in that time I was able to develop enough skills that I could jump into one of those high-paying, cushy tech jobs when it came time to realize that academica sucks and I wanted to leave.