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Mine would be teaching literature at the university full time... I could probably get that if I really went for it...
But these days, working conditions at the humanities where I live are pretty miserable: you are constantly employed on short term contracts. You are competing with your co-workers for funding, creating a hostile environment - and even when you are not, you rarely cooperate... you haven't got much of a relationship with your students.
I'd gain a slightly higher wage and getting to teach higher level stuff to bright people - and a degree of social prestige... but I'd lose a hell of a lot in my current job that makes my life worth living.
Yeah, adjunct work is laughably low-paying, especially in the humanities. Full-time adjuncts (which is also very competitive) do better but still nothing like tenured professors.
My dream job would also be tenured college professor. You get to research the type of material you're very much interested in and then you get to teach it/discuss it with students. Some of those discussions are amazing and you really can get a "teachers' high" after a good session.
The pay is good and you're very comfortably middle/upper-middle class, but the vast majority of scholars aren't super interested in making as much money as possible anyway. The bad thing is that, like everything else in society, it's becoming more money-driven. Getting grants is the most important thing so that shapes your "research interests." You're interested in a particular topic? Well, it better be interesting to some funding institution as well...