Let's not forget that Edison only spent 3 months in school, and Ford had little time for school, either. It's not so much their educational choices as a complete lack of curiosity that I see in kids these days. They don't know how things work. They don't care. They take it for granted. "Hybrid = good" is enough. Why? How do implementations differ? Shrug.

Maybe it's information overload. Everyone (young and old) seems to want things reduced to simple sound bites these days.

Paris Hilton is a useless moron whose grandfather accomplished a lot, whose father accomplished a fair bit, and who has accomplished nothing on her own.

The President of the United States is a useless moron whose grandfather accomplished a lot, whose father accomplished a fair bit, and who has accomplished nothing on his own.

Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, Paris Hilton dropped out of private school and got a GED.

Greed. Enlightened self-interest, minus the "enlightened".

We once built the Woolworth, Chrysler, and Empire State buildings because we appreciated nice things. Now we build metal & glass boxes because they're cheaper.

We introduced Social Security, to provide a safety net for seniors. Now we try to gut it.

Even when healthcare costs are spiralling out of control, we won't adopt universal healthcare. Everyone is so worried that someone else might get a slightly bigger piece of the pie that nobody is allowed to have any pie at all, rather than concentrating on our own slice (to totally butcher a metaphor).

American society is in a (hopefully non-permanent) decline, and rather than address the issue, we stand around looking for scapegoats.