who are paid a decent living.

Here is the list of the top 100 highest paid government employees in the state of Texas. By my count, over half of them have "professor" in their title, and they are earning anywhere from $600k - $1.2M per year. (It's also interesting to note that every single one of the top 100 highest paid employees work for a public university, with the top positions being in the athletic departments)

http://salaries.texastribune.org/highest-paid/

In addition, most of my professors when I went to business school earned anywhere from $180k to $220k per year, which I would agree isn't extravagant, but that is a decent living.