[vinceguidry]

I think it's a natural outgrowth of specialization. Right now the largest bottleneck our society has is the fact that knowledge is painfully difficult to transfer. You can send a kid to school for four years and he still more economically useful than a plumber's apprentice. If you take work away from the busy people and give it to the less busy people, the net result is an overall lowering of quality.

This problem does not seem to be surmountable with the level of social infrastructure we have. I doubt even more societies with a greater level of public organization, like Norway, could do this. Knowledge and experience are just best when hoarded.