[rayiner]

We have an economy that is structured such that we need average people to be able to read and do basic arithmetic. We do not have an economy that requires them to do more than that. Indeed, I'd argue that we have over-educated the average person--too many people with college educations working basically the same jobs they could have gotten 50 years ago with just a high school education.

[disgruntledphd2]

Firstly, apologies for the ridiculously late reply.

Secondly, so what? The particular structure of our economy is no reason to constrain our abilities as a species. I would argue that we have crippled, half educated college graduates doing pointless work across the WEIRD (google the acronym) world, and that this is bad.

My argument is not that we have educated the "average person" (presumably you're not one) too much, but rather that we have educated them too little. Just enough to believe that they know enough, but not enough that they actually reflect upon their existence.