This response tells me you've never been in the science trenches. I've never heard of a postdoc making anywhere close to 60k, even at elite schools in high COL areas. The financial opportunity cost is staggering.
Straight wetlab postdocs are usually around the NIH levels (~40K). For computational postdocs (especially if you have a good biology background), 50-60K isn't out of the norm.
Well, you'd be incorrect, since I'm currently a science academic. Have you checked what Stanford, or Georgia Tech, or UT-Austin pay postdocs with machine-learning or data-mining experience, in the past 5 years? There are definitely areas that pay less, but bioinformatics, if by that you mean people with serious computational skills, pays above the norm.
If you have strong machine-learning experience and a few good publications in the current market, getting a postdoc at a top institution is nowhere near NBA odds. I don't know what the odds are specifically for Stanford, but if you apply to whoever has openings among top schools, there are many each year. If you know something about biology and a lot about machine learning, labs might even recruit you rather than vice versa.
This has certainly been my experience as a recent PhD in computational biology. I pretty much have my pick of Post Doc positions - I was getting offers before I even graduated. I was also able to negotiate 50k without much trouble, but I'm definitely worried about the opportunity cost. Giving up 100+ k for more than a year or two seems like a poor decision.
Also a Post Doc from a top lab directly correlates with how much $$ you can make in industry.
