Studies show you buy more with a credit card than cash. You think you're saving 1-3% but you would easily save that with slightly more conservative spending.
It's also worth mentioning the real business is analyzing the consumer data you give them for pennies.
I would guess 80% of the career value is captured by satisfying admissions and graduating. I think the actual grading isn't looked at except to rank similar peers for admission to other competitive programs.
You may be willing to make the tradeoff, but you should acknowledge the downsides.
The most extreme example is in academia where they get a lot of stability in exchange for an excruciating job hunt and interview process. And if they don't like the job, they are stuck.
I would rather have a world where we can take a chance on someone, then not. If you have all your ducks in a polished row, and look and act the right way, maybe you prefer protection against that.
For that to explain the gap I think you would have to consider how many of those employees who get written up live with their families vs more detached living arrangements. With that consideration, it seems unlikely that change alone could make up 15% for the overall group.
Those thinkers I've read (Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Descartes, Leibniz) also have nothing in mind that resembles a melting pot for the world's cultures and religions. One again the historical context is being tired of endless wars between protestants and Catholics and often being a member of a tiny minority of aetheists and deists.
The brand of humanism you are associating with is a much later development.
Do you think it is possible to accommodate all those religions in one government?
I agree with you that it's not a golden cow, but I typically have to question posts like this one to get that admission. Claiming authority from the constitution when you don't believe in it is a cheap rhetorical technique to appear interested in historical America when you aren't.
The main conclusion I would draw is that we have no obligation of "fairness or equality" towards every religion. Our system was built to accomodate certain kinds and those that aren't in direct conflict, it seems a pretty good compromise that's hard to work around.