Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A Business Education

Kathy Gornik, President of Thiel Audio, points out the paradox of a business school asking for political money to teach young people the principles of business. Her letter appeared in Business Lexington.

Kathy is also the first recipient of the Bastiat in Business Award.

Dear Editor,

I'm writing in response to Tom Martin's article about the University of Kentucky seeking state funding for a new high-tech home for the Gatton College of Business and Economics. I hope that the irony of this request is not lost on readers of Business Lexington.

Businesses create wealth by economic means, the ONLY way wealth is created. Businesses voluntarily produce good and services for which customers voluntarily trade their money. However, it is possible to OBTAIN wealth through political means, i.e., stealing it.

For the sake of the students they are teaching, one would hope that the Gatton College of Business, of all colleges within a university system, would raise its money through economic means, both as an educational example and moral reflection of what free enterprise, markets, and businesses are all about. By using tax dollars extracted from productive workers and business owners in Kentucky to build their new high tech home, Gatton College contradicts the very nature and meaning of what is being taught. Every dollar taken from the private sector impedes the ability of businesses to grow, prosper, and hire more workers. Why would the Gatton College of Business want to participate in such a system?

What an inspirational and educational statement it would make if Gatton would raise its own money through a voluntary system of private donations or some other means that put into practice what I can only assume they are teaching about business, entrepreneurship, economics, and wealth and job creation based on the American founding principles of private property, individual rights, and limited government. Business owners and their employees are the antithesis of a government handout.

Sincerely,

Kathy Gornik

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