Hansen,

Individually there is some merit to what you say, but only if you discount education being its own reward.

Collectively, how do you divide Lui's attitude from China's successful development as modern economy?  China could never have done it without the ingrained Confucian scholar model.  

Maybe the Torah Scholar model is somehow responsible for the Jew's collective economic success.  Paul Riechmann, the Orthodox Jew of Olympia and York fame, thinks Torah study is what made the Jew different and successful through the ages.