Faith in corporations and our modern economic system at an all-time low. Only a third of Americans indicated that they believe and trust in big enterprises. At the same time, over half of the polled people said that the corporations have too much power and influence over public life – is what indicates a relevant study.
Of course, the demographic of people who consistently and reliably showed strong negative feelings about the enterprises are you people. In fact, around only 40% percent of people younger than 30 years old expressed any positive feelings towards our current modern economic system and the state of it.
A very significant part of the younger generation is very dissatisfied with what capitalism has really given their whole generation: government corruption, world spread pollution, and social systems unjustly skewed in favor of extremely rich. Yes, there is no doubt that things need to improve, and the new generations are already bringing new ideas and perspectives to the table.
One of the main problems that people are currently trying to tackle is the lack of humanity, and social consciousness within the system, and a lot of companies are responding positively to the spirit of our times and make good on their promises to follow ethical principles and care for their stakeholders.
Education establishments have responded to this call too and started to provide more programs on business and economy topics that have to do with the morality and social factor in the industry. It is definitely not enough and only a first step of many to help influence our economic system for the better.
Business colleges have been integral to the American economy for a very long time by educating the professionals in the private sector and molding their approach to managing business and evaluating ventures. Now, business education institutions need to adopt a completely new mindset and economic outlook to teach younger minds if they want to stay relevant in modern times.
The Reason Behind the Dissatisfaction
Before we can delve into why and how business colleges should and can respectively amend the current tries in revamping our economic system, we need to examine the reasons behind the people’s immense dissatisfaction with the current state of business and economic affairs:
- The government doesn’t enact any major policies to protect the citizens from the wrongdoings of big enterprises. Many view the modern iterations of our government very inefficient and untrustworthy, as it doesn’t create sufficient policies to tackle some of the biggest societal issues of today: climate change, inequality, and the increase of people in poverty.
- Big enterprises are punished only with a small slap on the wrist whenever they do something wrong. People are getting tired of the soft and forgiving attitude big corporations get from the government due to how much tax money they contribute to the government.
- The 2008 bank crisis pointed out the elephant in the room. That year was essential to people recognizing that the big companies don’t have the interests of regular people in their mind at all and that the government produces very flawed, skewed (and seemingly corrupt) regulations, which aren’t effective in regulating companies at all.
Why Education Establishments Should Even Get Involved
The obvious trend as of now is the move beyond the private sector. The educational institutions are already recognizing the students’ weak faith in capitalism, and it’s not enough to create just a couple of courses to make each student a proficient essay writer about the new trends in the business sector. No, they need to act quickly and entirely rethink their whole business and economic majors.
The private sector should lose some of its importance in higher education courses, and the role of government should be discussed more. The community-minded approach should be expanded upon. In the case the colleges will not be willing to adapt, they will be in great danger of becoming outdated, not valued, and not respected, which will eventually show through the application statistics.
Here’s What Can Be Done
In its current state, the business colleges are actually a part of the problem, as they reinforce the old approach to business management and development that centers solely around the private sector and the maximum profit. Nonetheless, they can implement new initiatives to become a contributing factor to the solution of the major issue, such as:
- Emphasize the importance of considering the long-lasting results and outcomes of your business’ practices.
- Highlight the need to have devices in place to stop the incorrect and amoral use of power.
- Present the ideas of the tight collaboration of businesses with the government powers and support the democratic processes.
- Showcase the need to engage with various social and economic groups.
In Conclusion
It’s time to explore and implement the socially-responsible and community-minded paradigms of business management. Now, the staple ‘bigger is better’ isn’t relevant anymore. The business colleges need to be continuously thinking of ways to help our society improve the economic system in use.