But with such ease and reliance on computers comes ever-increasing vulnerability. Brilliant engineers may have designed our laptops, cell phones, online commerce and 1-800 call lines. But someone still has to answer the phone, enter data into computers and assist customers who fall through the electronic cracks. And such human audit of the growing power of computerized commerce requires more, not less, educated workers than ever before.

As if intelligent and perceptive customer service were the point. But not to worry Victor Davis Hanson know exactly who to blame. The educational system.

And here is where problems arise.

Too many of us are growing more illiterate - reading less and watching television more. A conservative estimate of the national high-school dropout rate is 20 percent. Even for those who graduate, too often a therapeutic curriculum emphasizing self-esteem; race, class and gender issues; and drug, alcohol and sex education has crowded out language, science and math.

Now Wonks Anonymous highly educated and most intelligent spouse once had the misfortune to work as a customer service rep for a major corporation. She was genuinely interested in helping her customers, researched their questions and asked her supervisors for help. She was fired because "she was trying to give the customers good service".

Note to Mr. Hanson: The people who run your bank or cable company do not really care about getting it right or making you happy. They are monopolists. By various means they have obtained control over public financial and communications systems. In order to get access to these systems you pay them tribute.

You would no more expect these corporations to care about the courtesy or helpfulness of their employees than you would expect a feudal lord to train his bailiffs in problem solving or human relations. The lord could keep the peasants from the land and prevent the merchants from using the roads. He got his rents and he got his tolls. Did he care about their customer satisfaction?

In this context a modern, challenging educational system is simply a waste of good tax dollars that might be better spent on bailouts or wars. Sure keep the kids off the streets during their difficult teen years, anything to keep them busy as long as you don't spend too much money or teach them to question authority.

Wonks Anonymous applauds the highly intelligent web monkey at the SF Chronicle who made the decision to rerun an Op Ed from Saturday on tattoos in today's opinion section of the web edition of the Comical instead of Mr. Hanson's piece. It was harder to find Mr Hanson to cite but the public was well served.