What do education and sex have in common? Some might answer that sex is now a course or series of courses in education. Others might answer that both involve a screwing. Neither is the correct answer.
The answer I was looking for is the following one. From the time of Socrates, only the delivery of education and professional sex has not changed.
Prostitution has obvious limits which explains its stasis. For education, there is no excuse other than it is a government-run operation. Technological advances (printing, radio, TV, computers and the Internet) should have reduced costs and raised productivity dramatically. These tools, if used at all, are show tools and not used effectively.
The quality of professional sex presumably has remained constant over this time period and so likely has its cost, at least in real terms. The quality of education has deteriorated while its cost in real terms has soared.
Most of us have seen (and could not pass) examinations from the early 1900s. Looking at what eighth graders were supposed to know is enough to embarrass doctoral candidates. Despite the obvious deterioration in quality, it is not uncommon for students to graduate with a useless college degree, beginning their working lives burdened with more than $100,000 in debt.
The education bubble cannot last much longer. As our standard of living decreases, the inefficiencies in education continue to drive costs up and quality down.
Here is one possible solution:
