Our rulers want a dumbed-down populace. When the Russians launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, America was shocked into accelerating her academic curriculum, and one of the results was a searching, questioning, and rebellious youth movement a few years later. Our rulers don't want this happening again- hence, the introduction of the 'sliding scale' grade system, zero tolerance laws against, well, almost everything, and the burgeoning debts most young people incur, plus the rising cost of living... endless cable channels full of crap; which effectively keep people tied down,distracted, and passive/submissive.

It was leisure which afforded the ancient Athenians the ability to produce its 'Golden Age.'

(more to come).