It's misleading to look at Google and Apple and decide things are fine. These companies are being run by top-of-the curve people who would have succeeded no matter what the education system was. Instead, look at the middle 90% of the curve. What is the state of a 25th %-ile person in the US versus say Germany? That's just as important to look at.
And no, the internet does not solve everything. It doesn't even begin to solve many of the problems that plague Americans who aren't already privileged in some way. Here in Chicago, the internet doesn't help all the black kids who don't even have safe schools to go to, much less good ones.
If that's true, why is disproportionate number of companies such as Google and Apple and Microsoft thriving here if they could be anywhere? I believe there is a secret sauce in the US or Google would have been from elsewhere.
And no, the internet does not solve everything. It doesn't even begin to solve many of the problems that plague Americans who aren't already privileged in some way. Here in Chicago, the internet doesn't help all the black kids who don't even have safe schools to go to, much less good ones.