Why Would Anyone Want to Do This?

In my younger years, I used to see the world of education as a better place for everyone, a world in which anyone can "improve" themselves by learning more about themselves and what makes them happy and sad, frustrated and fulfilled.  We can learn, after all, to make the world a better place and to make our own little worlds better places as well, and we can be happy in our own little worlds and help others to be happy also. And of course, that's the ideal--learning so that we can improve things, so that we can make the world a better place for our children than it was for us.  But this ideal begs the question:  if more people are educated now than ever before, why is our world so incredibly messed up?  Why is our planet in worse shape now than it ever has been?  Why do so many people still die of starvation when we make enough food to feed more than the world's population?  Why are politicians more able now to push through laws based on their own belief systems than