I think the point is that if you want a pool to choose from, there has to be a future for those who front the time, effort, and money (debt), to prepare themselves.
I can remember times when government funding was cut for this or that program and PhDs were out of a job and pumping gas (we pump our own gas here now so that's nolonger an option). No doubt their children remember too.
Like all theories, the free market theory brakes down. When we talk about private enterprise producing for comsumers, it holds up. When we address issues of national security, it doesn't work because we ask the individual to foot the bill for training that works to the good of a smaller [than global] market with no prmise of a pay-off. (Remember, the free market assumes that individuals will persue their own best interests - not national insterests)
Thomas Jefferson sumed it up when he said "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
You know, when I read Jefferson quotes like that one, it make me so grateful that George Washington had Alexander Hamilton in his cabinet to act as a counter balance.
> Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains
That's right. That is why you can't trust our national security to a free market.