I read a meme yesterday about how you can just interject "it's all about finding that balance" into any meeting and people will just agree with you. I'm gonna say it here.
Sometimes a flexible tool fits the bill well. Sometimes a specialized tool does. It's all about finding that balance.
What's your argument here? That corrupt police who run protection rackets are worth it because they will, in the end, actually protect your family from gangs of 100+ people?
"on the job"? Most likely. But I spent a lot of time and money getting a degree from an accredited university, where I was bored the whole time and maxing out the number of credit hours they would let me take while also working as much as I could. Why? Because I could've aced the first 2 years of CS classes by the time I was 13. I would imagine that's not uncommon among people who grew up with a hacker mindset and had the resources to explore it. I surely had gaps in my knowledge - not saying I didn't learn anything from the college experience. But I would love to live in a world where I didn't feel like I would, at some point, be better off with an accredited 4-year degree just to get or keep a job in the first place.
Same as with an IRA, though, it's intended for retirement savings and there are penalties for early withdrawal. The issue here (right or wrong) is self-directed IRAs being effectively usable for things other than growth investments.
I think at this point we're reading too much into specific units to compare very distinct things. The point of the analogy either way is the compounding effect of seemingly small things repeated.
Sometimes a flexible tool fits the bill well. Sometimes a specialized tool does. It's all about finding that balance.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.