alt Hacker NewsTry setting an toddler in front of an iPad and see how well the toddler learns how to read academic papers and the limitations of unlimited free flow of information would become quite evident.* While there have always been autodidacts, education is still a needed role to delegate for most, especially those who aren't privileged to have parents who already possess both an education and the time to personally propagate it.
*(Actually you probably shouldn't.)
You're trying your darnedest to not understand what I'm saying. Maybe you learned that in academia?
You can instantly distribute any academic books and papers online and you can live broadcast lectures, even have two way communication between lecturer and student in text, voice or video, no matter where they are on the globe.
So the idea is outdated that you should have to invest this amount of money or these many years of your youth and be in a specific place for a degree. It has been mostly an excuse for the rich to hire the children of other rich people for well paying jobs. "Oh, you don't have a degree. Sorry, we can't consider you". Now that everybody is getting degrees, that excuse doesn't work anymore.