It used to be that a high school education would give you the skills and knowledge to get an unskilled job at a livable wage. A high school diploma was all you needed to work on most assembly lines, for a nice decent union wage.

There's not one statement in that paragraph that's true any more. The unskilled jobs have all been sent to cheaper workers overseas, or have been automated out of existence. Republicans have all but succeeded in killing unions in America, destroying labor laws, and holding the minimum wage to 1970s levels. The barriers to entry for getting any kind of job are much higher now than they were when we were young.

When I first started working, the conventional wisdom was that if you wanted a new job, you'd just turn in a different driveway in the morning. That seems like a dream now, and nobody can coast on a high school diploma any more.

So Rob, by your logic--society's educational subsidy reflects the level of education you need to get by--society is now obligated to provide a free college education. Or at least, as the Great Compromiser Barack Obama offered, two years of community college. Because that's what people need.

What? "Would you still have us pay for law school?"? Is that because lawyers are scum? I'm not sure why you're singling out law school.

You might not know that what Shakespeare meant by that line that conservatives love so much, "kill all the lawyers", is pretty much the opposite of what you think it means. In context, conspirators are observing that if they want to get away with breaking the law, they first have to remove lawyers as their primary obstacle, as the ones who'd blow the whistle and fight them in court. The good guys, in Shakespeare's telling.

Surprise, two sides to yet another story! Will the world never cease this vexing complexity?