Higher Education: more valuable than oil and costs less in the long run

Longtime business reporter Gregg Easterbrook writes in an article on the current transformation of the global economy (in the Feb 22 issue of Newsweek). He says that the key to long-term economic success in a post-manufacturing economy is ....higher education.

He calls it America's "secret weapon, more valuable than petroleum ...."

...nowhere is [America's] lead in the world more important than higher education.
The United States has more great colleges than the rest of the world combined. Yet [some] states are cutting back their public-university systems. This is a terrible mistake. In the long run, extra college may even cost society less, because people with college educations are better suited to look after themselves in a turbulent economy, rather than asking the government to subsidize them.