Reading Between the Lines: Kant, Falling Fertility, Schools, & (by proxy) The Societal/Economic Costs of Incarceration.

Immanuel Kant's "What is the Enlightenment?"

...A greater degree of civil freedom seems advantageous to a people's spiritual freedom; yet the former established impassable boundaries for the latter; conversely, a lesser degree of civil freedom provides enough room for all fully to expand their abilities. Thus, once nature has removed the hard shell from this kernel for which she has most fondly cared, namely, the inclination to and vocation for free thinking, the kernel gradually reacts on a people's mentality (whereby they become increasingly able to act freely), and it finally even influences the principles of government, which finds that it can profit by treating men, who are now more than machines, in accord with their dignity.
-Immanuel Kant

Synthesis by Le Fils de Fanon
such is the make up of the United States, the world's most highly perfected mix of freedoms and navicable oppressions which is ruther mitigated by the opportunities provided to the underclass (education, healthcare, etc) to join the middle and upper classes. the magic ticket, or the "lotto". The free thought promoted by Kant in his analysis of "what is the enlightenment" predicts the future stability as well as the primary reason for the economic development of the United States. The desire to invests in ones education is in part fueled by the virtues of liberal arts and sociological "enlightenment", yet, the greater impetus is the ability to freely ply ones trade in the economic sphere and achieve free class movement and/or engage in the pursuit of happiness with all attendant free speech and civil rights.

falling fertility rates are a great proof of the success of this Kantian idea in that as a people become more educated and their awareness of the investment needed for their children, they work longer, have less children, delay childbirth during key, high economic earnings times, the freedoms of females, enlarges this largesse and mentality, and the entirety of society, in both freedom of thought and environmental impact is spared the evils of uneducation, high population, and the creation of a "true" permanent underclass.

Falling Fertility Rates

All told, global fertility rates are half what they were in the early 1970s. The primary reason appears to be the rapid movement of people from farms to cities (nearly half the world's population today lives in urban areas), and the increasing social and economic opportunities available to women. Because of the large numbers of women still in childbearing age, world population will continue to grow for several decades, even as the average woman has fewer and fewer children. Yet within the lifetime of today's young adults, most demographers now believe, world population could well be falling.
Ben J. Wattenburg & Ivan R. Dee

Schools vs. Troops in Pakistan

For roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education.... Such a vast global education campaign would reduce poverty, cut birth rates, improve America’s image in the world, promote stability and chip away at extremism. Education isn’t a panacea... but all in all, the evidence suggests that education can help foster a virtuous cycle that promotes stability and moderation.
-Nicholas D. Kristof