Think about it on a micro level. Do you work better when your coworkers are thoughtful, or when they're thoughtless?

Now multiply that by a billion, and that's why it's good for the economy.

Beautifully said. Well rounded, thoughtful people improve life for all of us. Of course, we also need practical skills to make a living. But we can have both, they are not mutually exclusive.

What does “thoughtful” mean? If you think that includes telling flattering lies—“everyone is beautiful, everyone is smart”—then I would say that makes things a lot less efficient. It’s much more valuable to have coworkers who are brutally honest and realistic.

The expected a priori utility of any social intervention is strictly negative… even if “more thoughtful” does check out in reality for higher ed, $700 billion and 15million man years yearly is rather expensive.

All of my thoughtless coworkers are still university educated though

My guess is thoughtfulness is either something you're born with, or it's something you learn much younger than university