I'm not so sure about the idea that education is important for its own sake, the way you framed it -- that somehow if we make everyone go to more schooling we'l

I'm not so sure about the idea that education is important for its own sake, the way you framed it -- that somehow if we make everyone go to more schooling we'll have a better citizenry. They may learn the wrong things, they may learn nothing, they may learn useless things. What's relevant is comparing the 4 years they spend not earning experience and money to what they could have been doing, and what they would have been learning there, and how they would have been improving themselves in that case. Are you saying that the median student is a better citizen if he spends 4 years doing mediocre work at a mediocre school vs. 4 years learning a trade? That we'll all be "better off" if the plumbers learn literary criticism before they learn plumbing?