You say you want a revolution, but does it pay the bills?

Serious question for all of you: would you be willing to “sell out” in exchange to being financially successful?
A great number of the people I know are the type who have been academically well prepared and who have all the tools necessary to be professionally successful, which society has always collectively told us is rewarded with purchasing power and capital. Despite the fact that many of us were exemplary students and did everything right in the eyes of society, we are in a position in which our salaries only barely cover the basic necessities and not much more. Much of this has been because of a lack of opportunity, true, but also because many of us have refused to “sell out”.
This is a somewhat personal question, despite it auspiciously being about our professional lives. I understand why people wouldn’t want to answer the question, but it is something I’ve been reflecting on lately.
I am a unique position: my degree is in Psychology, which in and of itself isn’t a career that allows for much “selling out”, at least on the surface. No one is gonna get rich off a Psych degree, unless they pivot towards pop psychology, the lecture and self-help circuit. Many in my position have become a sort of salesman and shameless self-promoter, using social and traditional media to sell their services in a simplified form by way of dumbed down “advice columns” and broad statements designed to lure in insecure and needy people. There is money to be had by organizing “diplomados” and workshops, by media appearances on chat shows and writing simplified books that encourage people to adapt a myriad of clichés into their lives. Despite my trepidation of doing these sorts of things, I would never fault someone for doing them — I mean, you gotta make a living, right? I just choose not to. I don’t really do consultations anyways, and am much more comfortable with my head in a book and writing a paper than I am with face to face therapy.
My professional goals have always been a bit different — I am interested in heavy duty academic, peer reviewed research and to having a better understanding of how the mind works, as well as challenging the systems currently in use by society. Basically, I am interested in fundamental structural change — I think many of the issues we are dealing with today come from ineffective “truisms” and self-help mantras that are designed to shift the blame on individuals and not the expectations and corruption in the institutions at the core of our neoliberal society. Basically, my point is I want to challenge people, not only to be introspective about themselves but with society and the powers that be, as well as everything they’ve been taught from childhood to now. By nature, this is an anti-authoritarian and skeptic philosophy, which doesn’t jive with the interests of the ruling class and makes me a pariah in the eyes of most of the institutional movers and shakers.
That isn’t to say I am without fault, especially in my younger years, where I was brash, openly opinionated and would constantly question the motivations and execution of any given policy. At my 33 years of age, I have definitely learned to be more tactful and better position myself within a company. I am also less dismissive and frankly, less of a snob. That doesn’t mean my philosophy has changed entirely, but I think I am just better at handling interpersonal interactions. I still have fundamental distrust with the corporate structure however, with hierarchies, and with tasks that are designed to squeeze the most productivity and labor for the least amount of compensation (IE exploitation), which makes working in Human Resources something I often have unease with, especially when it comes to for profit companies. A similar situation happens when it comes to working in the public sector, where my personal politics and my relentless criticism of the way things are being run makes me the exact opposite of what government officials want in an employee.
This is a pretty longwinded way of me saying that while I haven’t “sold out” my ideals, I do wonder if it has been something I’d consider in the near future. Could I work for the yankee dollar by being more passive in my criticism and desire for real change? Could I go the route of shameless self promotion and pop psychology? Could I be a teacher in a for profit private school? Could I leave behind my scholarly ambitions for a job as a cog in the corporate machine? I dunno, maybe. I certainly have the tools to, I just don’t know if I want to point them that way.
I’d love to hear back from people. What would be “selling out” in your line of work? Have you done it or would you be willing to?