This is a depressing sign of the new reality. A group of young entrepreneurs is requesting government assistance. This new organization, which consists of young people who are probably pretty awesome in many ways, is looking to the federal government for assistance:
The Young Entrepreneur Council is proposing a Youth Entrepreneurship Act that would address the barriers that he [Scott Gerber, founder of the YEC] says young entrepreneurs face. One element would be a program to forgive student loans and debt for young entrepreneurs, which he says would address a major hindrance to recent graduates who want to set up their own shop.
“Now more than ever, with young unemployment being so high, we have to be educating people that youth entrepreneurship is a viable career path and not some renegade choice,” Gerber said.
You know what would really be a renegade choice? Not requesting special legislation from the government.
In the interest of full disclosure, I used to work for the government and when I had a small business in the 1990s it had a few government agencies as clients. I make no claim to moral purity here, but just wanted to note how depressing it is that a group of young innovators and risk-takers (of all people) would adopt the nasty habit of seeking government handouts as their standard practice of doing business.
