Aside from making money, businesses should also display a humanitarian side and give something back to the community, according to Jon M. Huntsman Jr., vice chairman of Huntsman Corp.
Those who succeed in business should help those "who may have stumbled along the way" and help support soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other places in need of financial help, Huntsman said.Speaking during the Junior Achievement of Utah annual governor's breakfast in Little America Wednesday, Huntsman said the Utah students receiving JA instruction this year must realize they don't live in an isolated world like their grandparents and parents did.
He said that for many years the marketplace was a community in which a person lived, but now the marketplace is the entire world and the United States is at the center of it.
In praising JA, Huntsman said the students are learning that the United States does the free enterprise system better than any other country. "Where else could someone borrow money, take a risk and start a business?" he asked.
JA is the largest economic education project in Utah with 40,000 students in kindergarten to high school participating. The project is funded entirely from private money. This year, elementary school students will receive five days of JA instruction and high school students will get 12 days of business-related education.
Don Atkinson, chairman-elect of the JA board of trustees, said there are 3,000 classrooms in Utah with 75,000 students who could receive JA instruction if more money were available.