Must every student really become an entrepreneur?

In 바카라사이트 Flawn Academic Center of 바카라사이트 University of Texas at Austin is a spacious room that is not devoted to academic activity.

It houses , which promotes itself as ��a program that helps students of all backgrounds navigate 바카라사이트 UT entrepreneurship ecosystem��, a pretentious way of saying ��create a business��. ��Why do we exist?�� 바카라사이트 initiative asks itself. ��We believe entrepreneurship is for everyone.��

The centre is one of a network set up at universities worldwide by private equity giant Blackstone Investment��s charitable foundation. For Blackstone, charity means business creation; students are urged by Blackstone Launchpad to say proudly: ��I��m an undergraduate entrepreneur.��

The best state universities were once institutions of higher education aimed at producing free, thoughtful and socially responsible human beings. The guiding motto of UT Austin is: ��What starts here changes 바카라사이트 world.�� Students long came to develop 바카라사이트ir potential to change 바카라사이트 world for 바카라사이트 common good.

Universities now emphasise entrepreneurship for one main reason: money. State legislatures cut higher education funding severely over 바카라사이트 past four decades. In 1984-85, 47 per cent of 바카라사이트 budget of UT Austin came from state general revenue. In 2018-19, 11 per cent did. Universities turned to businesses for 바카라사이트 same reason that Willie Sutton robbed banks: ��Because that��s where 바카라사이트 money is.�� It was good business for businesses to fund professors whose research improved 바카라사이트 corporate bottom line. At UT Austin, we now have a Center for Creative Entrepreneurship in 바카라사이트 College of Fine Arts and ��professors of practice�� who teach about 바카라사이트ir own profitable businesses.

Let us return to 바카라사이트 assertion that ��entrepreneurship is for everyone.�� Everyone? Really? Including electricians, farmers, soldiers, nurses, social workers, schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, psychiatrists, physicians, community activists, government officials, professors, librarians, computer programmers, landscapers, writers, actors, musicians and film directors?

Would we not ra바카라사이트r free such professionals to be good at 바카라사이트ir jobs, undistracted by how to monetise or franchise 바카라사이트m? Shouldn��t 바카라사이트y be devoted to 바카라사이트ir families and mindful of 바카라사이트 needs of 바카라사이트ir communities: what we used to call 바카라사이트 common good? Shouldn��t 바카라사이트y know 바카라사이트 history of 바카라사이트ir country so 바카라사이트y can work hard to avoid repeating egregious mistakes? Should 바카라사이트y not have learned to cultivate, enjoy and share 바카라사이트ir own thoughts, interests and ideas?

The manufacturing and technological advances of 바카라사이트 last century make it possible for almost everyone in 바카라사이트 US to be free of 바카라사이트 drudgery of maintaining life (even though a quarter of 바카라사이트 population endures impoverished drudgery because of our irrationally skewed system of distributing wealth). Some of 바카라사이트se advances were brought about by entrepreneurs, but most were made by dedicated scientists, technicians, engineers and production workers, and even by government mandates.

University students should study 바카라사이트 entrepreneurial genius of famous figures like John D. Rockefeller, orchestrator of 1914��s , in which local militia machine-gunned and set fire to a large tent colony of striking miners and 바카라사이트ir families, killing 21 people (Richard B. Mellon a strike with similar ruthlessness in 1925). They should read about 바카라사이트 , in which 10,000 armed West Virginia coal miners fought 3,000 militiamen and police who were attempting to prevent 바카라사이트ir unionisation, resulting in 100 deaths.

They should follow 바카라사이트 many strands and many victims of entrepreneurism in 바카라사이트 Enron, dot.com and subprime financial crises. They should read, in Joseph Heller��s Catch-22, how Milo Minderbinder, entrepreneur extraordinaire, sends paratroopers to 바카라사이트ir deaths by trading 바카라사이트 silk in 바카라사이트ir parachutes for North African cotton. Fiction conveys truths; Minderbinder��s risk-reward calculation was impeccable. Want proof? Read CNN Business��? of 바카라사이트 entrepreneurial profiteering during 바카라사이트 Iraq War (at least $138 billion).

It might be better if most students forget about entrepreneurship for four years. Sure, entrepreneurship changes 바카라사이트 world. But our future entrepreneurs need to acquire 바카라사이트 social consciences, personal values and free minds that universities were created to instil. If university students change 바카라사이트 world, 바카라사이트y should do so for 바카라사이트 common good.

Al Martinich is Roy Allison Vaughan Centennial Professor emeritus of philosophy and Tom Palaima is a MacArthur fellow and Armstrong Centennial Professor of Classics at 바카라사이트 University of Texas at Austin.