I disagree. Education is about culture and not access. Even when books were rare, families that valued education (even more rare) would do better.

Learning about the world gives you an edge, full stop. Cultures that highly value education, surprise surprise, are far more wealthy.

Today, it is almost harder to learn because of how noisy and manipulative the world is today.

For the vast majority of higher-level jobs you need certifications, not knowledge. There are very few jobs that you can get by simply demonstrating that you know something.

The reason people pay $100k for a year of college education most certainly isn’t the lectures, which you can often find on YouTube these days.