On the one hand, the spirit of inquiry and promotion of learning that higher education (should be) driven by is an excellent thing for both "productivity" and s

On the one hand, the spirit of inquiry and promotion of learning that higher education (should be) driven by is an excellent thing for both "productivity" and society as a whole. On the other hand, the idea that colleges exist merely as a credentialing system, and the intellectual complacency that pervades much of academia since it can extract such high rents as a gatekeeper, result in a vast misallocation of resources. Untangling the two (education vs. credentialing) will take time, but with the enormous debt-loads of graduating students these days, I find it hard to believe that today's college students will accept sending their own children through an educational/credentialing system that resembles today's status quo.