I am confused. At what age in a human's life does free education cease being a right and become a socialist plot?

@whowasthatmaskedman We will always need all the disciplines. We don't discuss Aelius of Damascus and his brilliant accounting. We revere Michelangelo, we read Dante, we dance to the standards.

Education for education's sake creates society. Not a bottom line in a ledger. The US has more wealth that nearly every other country on the planet and we're [i]still [/i]worrying about nickels and dimes.

@Graylight While I agree with you on principle, being from the field, I still believe a nation needs more engineers nurses and dentists than philosphers and egyptologists. So if you want to invest in your own education, fine. But if you want the government to fund it, then its reasonable to expect the government to want something useful (in the immediate term) back.😷

@whowasthatmaskedman The problem is, who decides what's useful? The curator of the Smithsonian? Wall Street? The Mayo Clinic?

It's an old problem with no great answers. I absolutely think a nation has to be run by those trained to run it, but why run it at all if there's nothing inspiring to live for? 🤷‍♀️

@Graylight Broadly we agree. But there are some rather esoteric fields out there that are of dubious value.. As you say, who draws the line?😷