But the relative value of knowledge is falling. If I knew calculus a thousand years ago, I’d have been the most brilliant mathematician alive. A hundred years ago, it’d have been more than I’d need to know for almost any profession. Today, calculus is the beginning of serious math. I need significantly more specialized math education to really be functioning at the top (even in fields that aren’t pure math).
I’m not sure our education system is getting worse in absolute terms, though it may be (math and science seem to have lost a lot of gravitas). But, in that it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse, because demand for highly educated workers is much higher. As compared with a “better” education system, the demand for grad school (especially in math and science) is much lower than it otherwise would be, lowering student quality and student volume in some combination, and probably increasing the average cost of training, as it fails to take advantage of returns to scale that might otherwise be present.
Not to mention public policy is generally constrained by the ignorance of the masses. If your average voter had a college (or postgrad!) level of understanding of economics, do you think policy would look like it does?
But the relative value of knowledge is falling. If I knew calculus a thousand years ago, I’d have been the most brilliant mathematician alive. A hundred years ago, it’d have been more than I’d need to know for almost any profession. Today, calculus is the beginning of serious math. I need significantly more specialized math education to really be functioning at the top (even in fields that aren’t pure math).
I’m not sure our education system is getting worse in absolute terms, though it may be (math and science seem to have lost a lot of gravitas). But, in that it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse, because demand for highly educated workers is much higher. As compared with a “better” education system, the demand for grad school (especially in math and science) is much lower than it otherwise would be, lowering student quality and student volume in some combination, and probably increasing the average cost of training, as it fails to take advantage of returns to scale that might otherwise be present.
Not to mention public policy is generally constrained by the ignorance of the masses. If your average voter had a college (or postgrad!) level of understanding of economics, do you think policy would look like it does?