Haha, saying post docs have too much money is amusing!
They have time, because they accept lower remuneration for many years to work on things they are interested in.
All of this research has to get funding from somewhere. Presumably the funding bodies decided this was a potentially useful thing to fund.
So I'm not sure what your complaint is really. Are you unhappy because you personally don't see the value in some research? That it just looks too much fun to be "real" work?
Not all research is fund through grants. Additionally, not all grants are optimising for real world impact.
Not saying that this is bad.
I just wonder if those post docs were put in a business context with the same runway of money, but a more strict business outcome as success criteria, would focus their work on the same things in the academia.
I'm also realising, as I'm writing that this is a very well know objection to industry vs academia, and possibly my knowledge is limited enough that I'm most likely wrong :)
They have time, because they accept lower remuneration for many years to work on things they are interested in.
All of this research has to get funding from somewhere. Presumably the funding bodies decided this was a potentially useful thing to fund.
So I'm not sure what your complaint is really. Are you unhappy because you personally don't see the value in some research? That it just looks too much fun to be "real" work?