Cognitive Inconsistency

I am so confused.  Jeffrey Simpson ranted today about the quality of Quebec education, which one can agree or disagree with, but his whole argument flies in the face of his previous stuff.  I ranted before about his column about research versus teaching (also here). Here, Simpson argues that:

For any advanced industrial society, universities are a critical element in economic development, productivity and a literate population.

I am confused--how can that be if universities are producing endless amounts of research for the private interest?   The rest of his column makes heaps of sense--that Charest should not let the students dictate the fees or how the money is spent.  I guess I will just have to like the new Simpson (quite the day for this since Robert Kaplan said something sensible today, too [not to mention Obama finally getting on the right side of history]).