>giving kids the tools to think for themselves, to actually rely on their own skillsets is [c]ertainly more valid than what you are writing above.
+1
There is a vast difference between co-operatively working towards a better solution, and blindly accepting whatever the interwebs think is best at the moment.
Outside of America (which seems to be obsessed with multiple choice), schools teach skills, not just facts. We teach children how to think and how to teach themselves.
As for the Mad Max scenario, what would happen if Spain and Portugal followed Greece into economic collapse? The UK has more debt than all of them. Australia has been very smug about its isolation from the GFC, but the value of its currency has plummeted and in our interconnected, always relying on someone-else world, that makes you poor.
We should share and share far more than we currently do, but it is not a substitute for hard work and deep thought. Contribute, don't just take.
I'm always amazed that large organisations like banks don't club together on things like open-source. With all the money they pour into things like security software, why would you not put a few million aside to ask the open source chaps to implement features you want? Yes, other people will gain without paying their "fair" share, but how many millions are you going to spend every year in order to keep things "fair?"