I mostly agree with Mr. Stross and daen. First, universal free public primary education was a triumph specifically of the Scottish Enlightenment, which other countries following that lead in mutated ways. Second, not all social evolution is progress, with the Stross example being on-target, and the American paradox of the best colleges being all but 3 of the top 20 worldwide by one recent metric, while the mean American higher education quality has plummeted towards bankruptcy-equivalent. Third, I have seen at least the USA figures for the expected increase in future earnings for given levels of higher education. Fourth, some specific schools actually publish the figures for their own alumni. Fifth, to the extent that there is a difference between a prior expected future income and Bayesian expectation given attainment of a given degree and/or from a particular institution, there should be room for arbitrage. Sixth: the present value argument is absolutely correct. Seventh: the David Bowie and Rod Stewart examples were known to me; I am wondering how to generalize this to, say, winners of prizes that are good predictors of future Nobel prizes, or the MacArthur fellowships, or the Field Medal. Eighth, how to combine Black-Scholes with social network theory? Ninth, Mr.Stross is one one the leading explorers of the dotcom business model paradigm to futurism, science fiction, and Fantasy, and I appreciate his indulgence in allowing this subthread.