The problems we face today are not explained by the difference between studying or smoking dope. There's something more pernicious involved. Yes, if you smoke

The problems we face today are not explained by the difference between studying or smoking dope. There's something more pernicious involved. Yes, if you smoke dope all the time your outcomes in life will probably be worse than if you study some "rarified" skill, to borrow your phrase. But studying takes resources, and time, and those are bought through money and social connections and luck. And increasingly, despite what we read about MOOCs and the new educational order, it doesn't matter if we study and learn, what matters is that we have a certificate of studying, a placeholder. And those placeholders are not the same as our knowledge, or one's ability to learn, and are subject to corruption and greasing like every other placeholder. And in the end, what does this say about how much value we should place on that rarified skill? Does our society really allocate financial reward according to actual value? Does Amazon really improve my life that much compared to the plumber or electrician who fixed my house? Is Facebook a net benefit to society? If it disappeared tomorrow, would nothing replace it? Could our healthcare be delivered under a different provider structure? Do I pay my ISP because it's the best of many choices, or because it's acceptable enough to not go without internet access? Is Amazon successful because of Bezos in particular? If Bezos was going around spouting all the ideas in his head, marshaling an army of imaginary workers, without any actual labor, would we still have Amazon? The point of this article is it's trivial to point out that hard work should and often is compensated. The problem is that the compensation structures in many fields are completely absurd in many cases relative to the actual value created.