That was certainly true in the Industrial Revolution, which was the time at and reason for which the education system as we know it was invented; the economy did actually need people who could spend all day every day fitting widget A into slot B without going mad from boredom. But as mechanical drudgery is progressively delegated to computers, leaving an economy desperate for people who can make plans and take the initiative, we should be progressively cutting down the education system, not allowing it to continue growing like a cancer.