Here's a question for you: In 1950, would it have been possible for anyone to know all of the goods and services that we would have at our disposal 50 years later?...
Compounding our ignorance is the fact that much of what we think we know is not true. Scientometrics is the study of measuring and analyzing science, technology and innovation. It holds that many of the "facts" you know have a half-life of about 50 years. Let's look at a few examples.
You probably learned that Pluto is a planet....
Because dinosaurs were seen as members of the class Reptilia, they were thought to be coldblooded....
Years ago, experts argued that increased K-12 spending and lower pupil-teacher ratios would boost students' academic performance....
At one time, astronomers considered the size limit for a star to be 150 times the mass of our sun....
If you graduated from medical school in 1950, about half of what you learned is either wrong or outdated....
Ignorance can be devastating....
You might say, "Stop it, Williams! Congressmen and other public officials are not making such monumental decisions affecting my life." Try this. Suppose you are a 22-year-old healthy person. Rather than be forced to spend $3,000 a year for health insurance and have $7,000 deducted from your salary for Social Security, you'd prefer investing that money to buy equipment to start a landscaping business. Which would be the best use of the $10,000 you earned -- purchasing health insurance and paying into Social Security or starting up a landscaping business? More importantly, who would be better able to make that decision -- you or members of the United States Congress?
The bottom line is that ignorance is omnipresent. The worst kind of ignorance is not knowing just how ignorant we are. That leads to the devastating pretense of knowledge that's part and parcel of the vision of intellectual elites and politicians.