What all of this shows is that education and economy are really not very related. This book makes the case: > The Case against Education: Why the Education Sys

What all of this shows is that education and economy are really not very related. This book makes the case: > The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money What happens is that companies just hire people who have proven that they are not dumb enough to drop out of school and just did what they had to to move on with their lives. In the end the Western countries are richer, not because the students are great, but because they have great opportunity and learn what they need to, so they can get that opportunity. The Soviet Union really was great at showing this, lots of super smart people, good schools, lots of government investment in high tech, more effective intellectual property theft then China now, cheap natural resources, cheap oil and so on. Jet they couldn't really make a competitive economy. Teach people the basics as efficiently as possible, show them where they can learn more if they want to, give them some resources to do so if they want to and let them find their way in a market economy.