If the goal is to teach kids to shut up, sit down and get in line, then it works as expected.
...is a far cry from 'as your chief response to most of life.'
No we wouldn't. Where do you think that money goes? Salary to Americans. The money moves in a circle.
We would be somewhat richer (broken window fallacy in play), but it would be a small fraction of the nominal number. And the fraction is even smaller if you realize that in some cases you are taking people who are doing nothing, and giving them a job (so the broken window fallacy doesn't apply to them).
1. The wars were 100% borrowed money. Every dollar spent was borrowed.
2. The wars produced nothing. Zero value. Not even any cool technology we overpaid for. A complete waste.
The wars literally increased the debt and associated economic drag on us and our children and their children by $2T in debt.
We would, therefore, be literally $2T richer. Not all of it was paid to Americans, but of the amount that was, every penny will be taxed out of us and paid back with interest. Pure drag and deadweight.
Montessori Schools, Mondragon cooperatives, and such are good first experiments, and we should be learning from them how to better construct institutions in which people actually enact their own beliefs and opinions by actually making decisions and taking responsibility for their own daily lives, in accordance with intrinsically motivated self-discipline (which, notably, requires less reward-and-punishment enforcement infrastructure!).
If you object to the very principle of equality between people, fine, but at least object out loud. Don't come telling us that "sit down and shut up" is a means to any ends other than regimentation itself.
Because people are different and hold different beliefs. I know some of my beliefs are upsetting to certain people, so I hold my tongue in regard to those beliefs around those people, because I care about those people.
Also, I didn't say "let's force people into regimented uniformity". I said, (perhaps not directly enough) being able to silence yourself is useful. Some people simply do not know how or when to stop talking. It's always painful to watch as they dig themselves deeper.
The school system in America is teaching the former and neglecting the latter, and doing more of it better is only going to get us more of the weaknesses and less of the strengths.
Since then we have advanced to a knowledge/information economy where things like critical thinking and taking initiative are necessary for success, and school has failed to keep up in terms of encouraging these habits in kids.