Worshipping Temple

I just read Sir William Temple's "An Essay Upon an Ancient and Modern Learning" and found it amazing. Many of the examples and topics that Temple addresses are ongoing in academia today. For example, Temple discusses how wealth and power become detrimental to learning and knowledge acquisition. He states:

It is no wonder then, that learning has been so little advanced since it grew to be mercenary, and the progress of it has been fettered by the cares of the world, and disturbed by the desires of being rich, or the fears of being poor.

What I find most upsetting about academia today is its obsession with money. Administrators want profits and students want high paying jobs. I would say that faculty want to get paid, but their salaries are so low, this would be a rather moot point. When higher education becomes involved with wealth, we're in for a world of trouble. Folks only want what is profitable, which isn't always what's best. As a civilization, we will pay the price, so to speak.