Education as job training rather than education for intrinsic value.
Meanwhile, other students were in apprenticeships or going somewhere that focused on the on the three R's of readin', ritin', and 'rithmatic.
If the amount of virtue-schooling is decreasing per-capita over time, that may just be regression to a centuries-long mean.
Absolutely. The "liberal" in "liberal education" means "free from having to earn a living" -- education for the independently rich, the ruling class, to ensure that they can rule wisely, justly, and prudently. Those who don't have property yet have always been better off with a technical education -- a category which historically even included law and medicine.
This subjunctive clause, stands alone as a true statement. How else does one earn money?
Well, one can gain money from passive rents on capital without work.
Well, unless we regress from currency to bartering, value is measured in money.