Paine was envisioning an educated populace; hence the creation and promotion of our elementary public school system as well as all the state land -grant colleges and universities that would be founded in the 19th century. All that, to create an informed educated thinking population. What do we have now? Somewhere in the thirties socialists began the incremental takeover of our educational systems to the point where we now have students wasting their time money and brain capacity on folderol such as Womens Studies, Black Studies and Social Justice. None of those students will ever cure cancer or leave a fingerprint on the world. But they will decide that the world owes them something when it is too late for them to turn the clock back and get on a productive path.... Education and government "service" are the routes to prosperity now - and where have we seen this before? Confucian China, leading up to the communist revolution, that's where.