I just assumed 100 Minnesotan pedestrians passed through each year.

I agree with your sentiment that a tablet is a reasonable complement to the things to a child should interact with, but I'd like to point out that a "A learning device with no texture, fake 3d, no smell, taste, heat, or any other input for senses other than sight and hearing" could be used to describe a picture book (expect for the hearing part). Yet, no one is claiming that pictures books could be harmful for development.

That is hard.

I don't think you can treat the economy or workforce like an individual farm where you try to maximize profit by only producing the single most profitable crop. We need a diverse workforce in order to have a strong economy just like we need a diverse landscape to produce the variety of crops we need, regardless of which one is most "valuable". As an added bonus, a diverse workforce is more resilient when there is a downturn in an individual sector.

Right. Some of us consider learning a fond personal experience. It is also difficult to go beyond the bare minimum of education if you are working a ton of hours at some unrelated job.

Stargate SG-1 called; they want their ZPM back.

I think you mean "fewer".