that's a large aspect of it, certainly. they have vague notions that they need to have some amount of educational attainment to make enough money to live comfortably, but this is not really connected to a lived motivation to actually build the skill of learning. and i think there's also a less discussed aspect where the broad bulk of the social current have their attentions and desires being moved between different very totalizing media. they do not engage with the world in such a way that learning is a skill worth honing. in fact, i think they've become rather divorced from being able to think about developing skills in general. in other words, if kids never really see anything put in front of them that suggests reading is useful and seeking knowledge is good, they won't have any motivation to that effect. our entire educational designs in the modern era are fundamentally structured entirely around the notion that this motivation already exists within the student, and that they simply require a guiding hand to keep them focused on the task.

A promise of a secure future does seem to be a reasonable prerequisite before asking someone to make a long term investment