PhD requires a lot of hard work, time, and patience.  I am not sure how many of all these PhD students actually have inner desire to pursue PhD and do research.  My understanding is, PhD is a must for someone who wish to pursue career in the field of natural sciences.  Also, having PhD does not make one smart.  Having PhD would definitely make one knowledgeable in his/her research field though.  If someone is looking for a job in an industry, PhD is not always easy to sell unless it is natural science field or some research and development industries.  People in the industry generally look for suitable candidates rather than technically best/sound candidates.  ALso, having a PhD does not mean he/she will be outstanding contributor in the industry.  Please note that industry are generally much faster paced environemnt compared to university's research labs.  Also, companies are more interested in producing results rather than the best posible results spending enormous man hours.  Generally PhD students and masters student take simialr courses during the school in the same field.  Only major difference is masters students geneally complete a project or thesis (generally not comprehensive)  while PhD students perform comprehensive research and publish a couple of papers.  To be honest, having four years of experience in real world probably teach you way more than spending four years doing one research in a lab.  Again, there are certain jobs which require PhD and it is worth getting PhD for such jobs.  Based on my experience PhD not necessarily makes one critical thinker, decision maker, or smart in his field.   Also, most of the jobs are 8-5, so there is nothing wrong in doing 8-5 jobs.  I would much rather take 8-5 job in the field my interest and plan my time rather than spending long hours doing research thinking I may get sometime off in summer.  Again,

In addition, if someone is really interested in doing cutting edge research and end up in some four year college or end up becoming more of a teaching only professor, his/her career development may be not great.  However, in the industry, one has to brush up skills to be in demand which also helps in career development.