I don’t buy it. Oh, I buy the thesis for such things as live theater, for example. But education has become far less efficient than it used to be: colleges have become lifestyle spas and grade schools are overrun with bureaucrats, special ed, team teaching, etc..
Lots of services, including government services (and even higher ed) should become more efficient with technology. Who needs a telephone operator any more? Or a travel agent? Or to actually wait in line for a bank teller? The whole Internet revolution affects the service sector and service-oriented jobs, not manufacturing.
The Internet revolution has given the service and government sector the opportunity to greatly improve productivity.
Currently most remain mired in ancient management practices which stifle innovation.
One story—I have a very bright nephew who works the night shift for a major corporation. He gets all his work done in an hour, has programmed the computer to do the rest of his work for him, and then reads and sleeps through most of the shift. He keeps his mouth shut and pretends to be busy (smart kid).
Meanwhile the firm has layers of clueless managers who sit around in meetings (during the day, of course) producing nothing.
The wrong guys are in the room.
Got it in one. The teachers, assistants, and principals at the school down the street could do a fine, indeed better, job of educating the nation's youth if the vast hordes of divisions and divisions of civil serpents employed in state and federal departments of education were sacked. Better yet, give each parent a voucher for $3-4,000 per school age child and let them spend it at the public or private, religious or sectarian school of their choice. We'd spend far less and get a far better product.