Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
> In any case, the University of Michigan represents a different
> segment of the bourgeoisie from corporate leadership and, as
> Machiavelli observed, while it is seldom good to give away
> one's own stuff, giving away _someone_else's_ stuff is often
> quite advantageous.
I don't know what the figures are now, but I suspect the relative numbers have not changed much. Many decades ago there were only *two* public universities whose endowment funds were of the same order of magnitude with those of the large private universities -- the University of Texas (read oil) and the University of Michigan (read autos/Law). One Rose Bowl game the U of M band put on what in effect was a commercial for GM -- though that was going it a bit strong and they got some static on it. I suspect the ties between the U.of M. and whatever part of big capital owns GM are pretty close.
Carrol