Another benefit of higher education standards is a more widespread understanding of principles. Increasingly, individuals learn to rise above concrete-bound thinking and to plan for the long run. In particular, more and more people come to appreciate the importance of learning itself, so that still more resources are directed toward education—thus generating still more knowledge and understanding in a positive-feedback loop.

The ability to think in principles enables citizens to understand the philosophies of individualism and freedom even better. As has been seen repeatedly in this course, the benefits of freedom and the adverse effects of intervention can be much more clearly grasped if our thinking is not limited to short-term, immediately obvious effects, but is guided by concepts and principles. As more people acquire this broader awareness, they tend to communicate it to their children as well, along with their appreciation of the worth of the individual and their love of liberty.