>Also, the quality could go down, but may more people could be educated, resulting in a large net gain.
That's an aggregate gain, why are you comparing this to per capita gains.
>Even if the quality of education is reduced, it's not nearly zero. Partly because of education (and health, freedom, political stability, etc.) we are far more productive than illiterate neolithic peasants farmers.
Worker earns more real value than neolithic farmer, but I don't think anyone was saying they weren't.
>Education isn't the only source of skills, of course. There is training, and also people are far better informed now, for example, due the the Internet (or disinformed).
There was also training in the 1960s and 1970s. The median worker likely has more optionality to become an above median worker now, although whether the median worker themselves has better training today than in the past decades is debatable.
>Lots of people saying something doesn't at all make it true; in fact, it should make you skeptical that they are following a mis/disinformation herd and don't know what they are saying.
This is true, but if everyone is saying US high schools produce dogshit, the world is not going to be inclined to pay a reputational premium to US workers graduating from high school. Perception is part of value, and in markets indeed the buyers believing something has value creates real positive demand. This can be seen elsewhere i.e. felons get depressed wages, even if their conviction was bogus or not something that effects their work. The very fact our education is seen as going downhill creates lower value/quality for our workers -- so as you can see what I said was highly relevant.
That's an aggregate gain, why are you comparing this to per capita gains.
>Even if the quality of education is reduced, it's not nearly zero. Partly because of education (and health, freedom, political stability, etc.) we are far more productive than illiterate neolithic peasants farmers.
Worker earns more real value than neolithic farmer, but I don't think anyone was saying they weren't.
>Education isn't the only source of skills, of course. There is training, and also people are far better informed now, for example, due the the Internet (or disinformed).
There was also training in the 1960s and 1970s. The median worker likely has more optionality to become an above median worker now, although whether the median worker themselves has better training today than in the past decades is debatable.
>Lots of people saying something doesn't at all make it true; in fact, it should make you skeptical that they are following a mis/disinformation herd and don't know what they are saying.
This is true, but if everyone is saying US high schools produce dogshit, the world is not going to be inclined to pay a reputational premium to US workers graduating from high school. Perception is part of value, and in markets indeed the buyers believing something has value creates real positive demand. This can be seen elsewhere i.e. felons get depressed wages, even if their conviction was bogus or not something that effects their work. The very fact our education is seen as going downhill creates lower value/quality for our workers -- so as you can see what I said was highly relevant.