Industry vs. Academia: the neverending struggle

So recent events have been forcing me to re-evaluate my professional prospects. I'm currently being tugged in two mutually exclusive directions: The glitz, glamour and fortune of industry at the expense of....my soul.... versus the noble life of intellectual pursuit at the expense of...a guaranteed roof over my head?

I guess it's kind of like Star Wars (warning: my Star Wars knowledge is shaky at best). On the one hand, you have the dark side, giant, omnipresent, well-funded, capable of providing you with wealth and power beyond your wildest fantasies, if only you'll join it. Then there's this rag-tag band of tweed-attired bandits whose hearts are good and pure, but can they defeat the Death Star? Of course, they did in the movie, but that's Hollywood, the same place where the nice guy gets the girl in the end, good always triumphs over evil, and other such fantasies completely divorced from reality. So how will this end?

I guess this PhD comic strip sums up the dilemma (click to enlarge)...