the data on why we need more people for the same education isn’t available.
Not available because it doesn't exist, not available because your request to see it was rejected?
Probably doesn’t apply to education.
It would not apply to teachers hired by a public school board, but that's hardly where teaching ends. Guitar teachers, for example, are quite likely to not be employees. We don't know the breakdown of what kind of teachers are involved.
For example, farming has historically had high idle time
Modern farming has high idle time, for the most part. Which is why 80% of farmers today have off-farm jobs. Being a farmer myself, I'm able to be here right now thanks to that idle time. Historically, not so much. There was always something needing to be done – stuff we can sick capital at nowadays.
but the byproduct that we have increased the costs to participate in society.
The byproduct is that you get to participate in society. Historically, that farmer you speak of maybe got to town once a week to stock up on supplies and got to see his neighbours at church on Sunday. Otherwise, that was his only real interaction with the outside world.