What about the massive efficiency improvements in education that are enabled by increasing technology? A while ago an interview with Sebastian Thrum was posted on HN.
The parts of the interview that stuck with me is where he said (I'm going to paraphrase, this isn't an exact quote): "I'm one of the best professors in the world in my field. I can teach a couple thousand students a year, at most, at Stanford. Online I can teach hundreds of thousands [and in theory there is no upper bound on the number of people you can reach online]."
There's a huge amount of inertia in our culture and institutions -- the university system of adult education has been built up worldwide for hundreds of years, so it has a lot of inertia in its sheer mass.
But eventually, anyone anywhere will be able to instantly get the best education in the world on any subject, at essentially zero cost. We're nearly there right now, really; it's just that we're still working on accreditation -- getting "I taught myself on the Internet" to carry the same weight as "I have a university degree in the subject."
The parts of the interview that stuck with me is where he said (I'm going to paraphrase, this isn't an exact quote): "I'm one of the best professors in the world in my field. I can teach a couple thousand students a year, at most, at Stanford. Online I can teach hundreds of thousands [and in theory there is no upper bound on the number of people you can reach online]."
There's a huge amount of inertia in our culture and institutions -- the university system of adult education has been built up worldwide for hundreds of years, so it has a lot of inertia in its sheer mass.
But eventually, anyone anywhere will be able to instantly get the best education in the world on any subject, at essentially zero cost. We're nearly there right now, really; it's just that we're still working on accreditation -- getting "I taught myself on the Internet" to carry the same weight as "I have a university degree in the subject."