WTN: The "Big Squeeze" - Look for a job or be an entrepreneur?

Tony DiRomualdo in todays edition of the Wisconsin Technology Network newsletter, discusses the fever pitch of sentiment surrounding offshoring. Having just reviewed the presentation of the St. Norbert College SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) group last night, and having listed to the stories about finding jobs in this economy, it seems to me that promoting entrepreneurship is a damn good idea. Which, in short, is the point of Tony's article

Despite two years of recovery, our economy is not producing anywhere near the number of new good-paying jobs needed. How then can America begin to redeploy and grow our human capital and economic assets? First, stop depending on big corporations for job growth. To create more jobs we need to start more businesses. Business ownership needs to be as much a part of the American dream as home ownership. It is vital to encourage entrepreneurship and help displaced workers to venture out on their own or join with others to start businesses.

It's ironic that SIFE members are going out into the community pitching entrepreneurship but come back to school, hit the PC, and troll for jobs online while feverishly updating their resume, trying to eek out every last bit of relevant experience that will land them a job. While I realize that it takes money, luck, and balls to venture out as an entrepreneur, I know for a fact that I had less of the former and more of the latter when I was graduating.

There are other benefits to democratizing business ownership. Trust between workers and top management is gone and can't be restored simply or easily. Instead, new kinds of companies and organizations must be created that blend people-centered management practices with commercially sustainable business models. These principles need not be mutually exclusive, but can be synergistic engines of economic growth and human development. They define what we call Next Generation Companies. America's future depends on our ability to renew and redeploy our economic, human and knowledge assets and to move away from the dysfunctional behaviors and practices so prevalent in mainstream business