Topics

Will Dropouts Save America?

Will Dropouts Save America?

2011-10-24
Source: NY Times


I TYPED these words on a computer designed by Apple, co-founded by the college dropout Steve Jobs. The program I used to write it was created by Microsoft, started by the college dropouts Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

And as soon as it is published, I will share it with my friends via Twitter, co-founded by the college dropouts Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams and Biz Stone, and Facebook — invented, among others, by the college dropouts Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, and nurtured by the degreeless Sean Parker.

American academia is good at producing writers, literary critics and historians. It is also good at producing professionals with degrees. But we don’t have a shortage of lawyers and professors. America has a shortage of job creators. And the people who create jobs aren’t traditional professionals, but start-up entrepreneurs.

In a recent speech promoting a jobs bill, President Obama told Congress, “Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin.”

Close, but not quite. In a detailed analysis, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that nearly all net job creation in America comes from start-up businesses, not small businesses per se. (Since most start-ups start small, we tend to conflate two variables — the size of a business and its age — and incorrectly assume the former was the relevant one, when in fact the latter is.)

If start-up activity is the true engine of job creation in America, one thing is clear: our current educational system is acting as the brakes. Simply put, from kindergarten through undergraduate and grad school, you learn very few skills or attitudes that would ever help you start a business. Skills like sales, networking, creativity and comfort with failure.....





Popular Posts

Previous


  • 2013-05-16
    The Financialisation of H20: The Final Frontier of Bankster Capitalism


  • 2013-05-11
    Aikido Steven Seagal - The Path Beyond Thought


  • 2013-05-11
    2 Living ETs Working with US Government


  • 2013-05-12
    Top 5 Things You Should Know About Litecoin


  • 2013-05-11
    The Fascinating Life of An Orthodox Jewish Surfer
Next

Related Posts

Like us on Facebook

Elsewhere in DazeNews

Like us on Facebook
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Copyright © 2012 Dazenews.com
Share