America is still rich beyond compare thanks to our preeminence in science, but there are cracks in the foundation. Our infrastructure is weakening, our infant-mortality rate is exasperating and our higher-education system, though still one of our great strengths, has reached the point of diminishing returns.

It used to be that the unprepared didn’t make the grade, but the democratization of higher education now means using the bloated tuition costs of lesser students to pay for the work of those with higher aptitudes. I believe we’re getting smarter in many ways, but not in the things colleges traditionally teach. From a report about American universities in the Economist:

“In 1962 one cent of every dollar spent in America went on higher education; today this figure has tripled. Yet despite spending a greater proportion of its GDP on universities than any other country, America has only the 15th-largest proportion of young people with a university education. Wherever the money is coming from, and however it is being spent, the root of the crisis in higher education (and the evidence that investment in universities may amount to a bubble) comes down to the fact that additional value has not been created to match this extra spending. Indeed, evidence from declines in the quality of students and graduates suggests that a degree may now mean less than it once did.

For example, a federal survey showed that the literacy of college-educated citizens declined between 1992 and 2003. Only a quarter were deemed proficient, defined as ‘using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.’ Almost a third of students these days do not take any courses that involve more than 40 pages of reading over an entire term. Moreover, students are spending measurably less time studying and more on recreation. ‘Workload management,’ however, is studied with enthusiasm—students share online tips about ‘blow off’ classes (those which can be avoided with no damage to grades) and which teachers are the easiest-going.”