The bent knob.

Our democratic system has a major fault. A nearly invisible flaw that will eventually drive our nation, both our economy and society, into the ground. It is the fact that not every one can go for higher education.

A democracy, or rather, republic, requires that every voter be educated in order to be aware of the issues being voted on. In a perfect democratic society, every person would be aware of all issues facing the world and the nation. They would be scientists of every nature, and artisans of every genre. They would have the knowledge to make every political decision, and know every faucet of history and law. This is, of course, ridiculous. But in order to make for a perfect democratic system, that would be necessary.

In loo of perfection, we can settle for a system that work well. One that functions, despite the imperfections that result from uninformed decisions. This system, however, would require that every person have at least a college degree.

Right now, America only requires that a person have a high school degree. With a high school degree, a person can get a very low paying job. They can read a newspaper. But they are less likely to know the more important facts about the world around them. A person with only a high school degree within the current society has not gotten many of the advantages, such as a focused instruction on a certain topic, that would help them to inform others in an authoritative manner. Without this focus, there is less information circling, and it is easy for wrongheaded ideas to slip through the societal filter. Without this protection, propaganda becomes more powerful, and thus power can be transferred to less people. Over time, such power becomes focused in a few, and instead of a democracy, an almost aristocracy develops.

This does not mean that the developments that result from limiting higher education actually benefit the rich. On the contrary, they become a powerful dampener to lives of the wealthy. Limiting the number of people able to go to college results in less people becoming scientists and artists. Thus, there are less developments. Innovation, with regard to the people who potentially could create it, is more of a gamble then a system of predictability. Thus, with less people within college, there will naturally be less people coming up with good ideas. Those good ideas include medicine and other technology, let alone the entertainment. Thus the quality of life, including for those who have money, will deteriorate. In essence, the rich will have money, yet live only as well as the middle class would have if education were universal.

So the solution is universal higher education. Education should be not only a right for everyone, but also a duty to the society. In order to serve a country dependent on voters for decisions, education should be of the utmost importance. It is only when we focus on education that we can regain the prominence that the United States has enjoyed in the past. Though it is not perfect, with everyone being educated to their utmost ability, democracy will be able to lead us into a much better future, as so many groups of people that were kept from it upon our country's inception now have access, if only they had the resources.