This is not about teaching people to become obsessed wealth gatherers. This is about teaching them how it works so that they don't screwed over by the people who are obsessed with wealth gathering. The more you understand about economics, the better the position you're in for understanding your own worth in the system. I think it should also be extended further so that people have a greater understanding of the link between their time and the money earned, so they're fully aware that when they piss away their money on rubbish consumer goods, they're paying for it in their own time and reducing their ability to actually achieve their important real life goals.

And while I agree that the scientists, doctors, builders, plumbers etc are important as well, the Soviet Union had very skilled people as well, yet the quality of life of their citizens was poor. That comes down to economics, which is fundamentally the way in which peoples working time is distributed.

You're always going to see this pissing match between who's most important out of the "people who do stuff so we can all actually survive", the "people who push the envelope forward", and the "people who glue the system together". We've got to make sure that all these roles are understood and respected.

Ideally it may be a "damned poor state of affairs" but for thousands of years people and governments have been snooping on other people to either gain an advantage or just for some tasty gossip. It's not some sudden failure in collective human kind, it's just what the majority would do in this situation if they got the power.

Technology may have made it easier to do this and given us a sense of outrage over "lowly sysadmins" having access to this sensitive data, but then I see the exact same thing being done by the government in their position of trust. Except they can pass retroactive immunity for it.