Oracle chief Larry Ellison speaks about the importance of education to America heading into the twenty-first century. He argues that Americans are unprepared for the world, with an unacceptable amount of functionally illiterate people. He further argues that the PC will not be the panacea many are promoting it as. He instead argues for a network computer, which he sees as the modern-day equivalent of a pencil: powerful, easy to use, and inexpensive.