But what about the people who dig ditches?

[meadowlander]

18. Without education, there is no society.

The fundamental building block of a society is shared values. Without them, we're just random people who live in some proximity to each other. And without education, we can't share those values.

So yeah. If you can't get on board with "truth is a good thing", "kindness is a good thing", "curiosity is a good thing", "other people have intrinsic value and deserve my respect", "the law should apply equally to everyone", "I want my kids' life to be better than mine", "what impacts my neighbours, impacts me", "we need more beautiful things in the world, not less" then go homestead in Idaho and see how far you get. You may live in America, but you are not part of American society by your own choice.

You don't need higher education to take those values on board. If you haven't picked them up by third grade, then someone has failed you. But it's never too late to reexamine things and make a change. And that change will never happen if we validate deliberate ignorance, bigotry, poor sportsmanship and selfishness because we're walking on eggshells around the false accusation that we are elitist snobs if we promote the opposite values.