Industry vs. Academia

I am curious on this forums responses on this topic, as I have seen that the active members here in the Gamingforce community have very diverse backgrounds and are a fairly intellectual crowd. I am interested in the answers of both those who are already well into their careers, and those who have yet to start or have just begun.

The topic at question is to whether you guys would prefer spending your time working in an industry in your career path, or would prefer doing research and instructing in an academic setting.

For instance, say you are into distributed or high performance computing: You are beginning your career in the computing industry and have are about to obtain your BS in computer engineering. You can either go to work in industry for well know engineering firms and make $60,000, or you can continue to get your masters and possibly PhD. Which would you choose and why?

I am at this quandary myself, and am considering both options. Sometimes I wake up in the morning with the conviction that I will go onto higher education, which promises more travel, free time(eventually), and the excitement of teaching. Sometimes I wake up happy in the fact that I can get a job out of college at a corporation and make enough money to pay off my loans and afford the electronics and video games I desire.

Which would you prefer?

Jam it back in, in the dark.