You live in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Switzerland. You work for private banks and hedge funds. You think short-term investing is not speculation. You graduate from the top business schools and law schools and join the best law firms. You are the Pirates of Heartless Capitalism.
You think you maximize economic profit based on the invisible hand of Adam Smith. You minimize the importance of the collateral damage associated to some of your investment decisions. You run multinational corporations and outsource the activities to countries that are unable to enforce minimum labour standards. You are the Pirates of Heartless Capitalism.
You defend the myopic national interest based on a discourse that supports a foreign policy that emphasizes the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons but forgets the damage of the illicit trade of small arms that kill millions, one person at a time. You defend free trade but minimize the importance of fair trade. You defend the elimination of tariffs but justify the maintenance of agricultural subsidies in Europe and North America. You are the Pirates of Heartless Capitalism.
It is time to acknowledge that the Pirates live within our own boundaries. It is time to acknowledge that there is also plenty of illicit and unethical behavior within our boundaries. You do not acknowledge that there are Pirates within our boundaries. You are friends with the Pirates of Heartless Capitalism.
I see Pirates all around me who claim they are innocent. I see lobbyists and lawyers and financial engineers and corporate managers that think their work does not carry any collateral damage. We all feel perfectly comfortable based on our own user's manual. We define what is right or wrong based on our own user's manual. We determine the rules of the game with which the developing world simply cannot compete. You feel perfectly comfortable with our own user's manual. You are friends with the Pirates of Heartless Capitalism.
I am not afraid, Pirates. I know where you hide and I am ready to point at you with my right finger. It is time to fight the intellectual debate in order to update our user's manual. It is time to make your activity illicit and make explicit you are condemned to sit in the Prison of Thought if you do not discontinue your activity.
I carry the blame of my ancestors, who killed and abused their power in Africa and Latin America. I acknowledge the blame of my ancestors and am ready to scream the urgency of our time. Our African brothers and sisters are in desperate need and we have ignored their calamity for decades. I am ready to shout the urgency of our time. I dare therefore I am.
I am ready to say why not instead of why. I am ready to think beyond our own boundaries. I am ready to move beyond national interest to a world with global priorities. I discovered the team of Expert Dreamers that will contribute to changing this world that stinks because we forgot to clean the dirt that has accumulated in the pipes of our old architecture.
I embrace excremental change. I praise you Expert Dreamers, gladiators of the idea, fighters of the word, who win by conviction and persuasion and never by imposition. I praise you Expert Dreamers, on whose shoulders I stand. Welcome to the new era of optimism that will start the Journey of our Lifetime.
Where are thou men and women of stature? Wake up sleeping beauty, it is time. It is time Expert Dreamers. it is time to say why not instead of why. It is time to follow the steps of the great men and women of the twentieth century. We owe what we are to Kennan, Clayton, Marshall and Truman. We owe what we are to Monnet and Schumann. I read the economic history of the 1940s and 1950s and understood the vision of the great men and women of the time, who showed courage that our generation abandoned once upon a time.
We shall rescue the courage we lost. We shall rescue the optimism and the conviction that we are able and ready to move forward. We have to believe it is time to become men and women of stature. We have to believe it is time to become visionaries of our time.
I hear you Kennan, Clayton, Marshall and Truman. I hear you Monnet and Schumann. They don't understand. The Pirates are too focused on securing their wealth. The Pirates are too focused on maintaining their supremacy using their military and industrial complex. I hear you great men and women of the 1940s and 1950s and thank you for your vision.
Who will be thanked in 2050? You don't understand, Pirates, that it is time to change your heart and embrace the love and the dreaming to transition from a heartless to a loving capitalism. You don't understand Pirates that is it time to start the Journey of our Lifetime that will take us to Decemland, the land of ten percent.
Let's write the History of Tomorrow. Let's defeat the Pirates on the intellectual ring of the idea that defeats by conviction and persuasion and never by imposition. Let's depart from Page One of the rest of our lives. Let's accept that we are all dwellers of a same planet, that we are all inhabitants of a same space where acute differences and extreme inequality should not take place.
The Pirates shall be defeated in an intellectual war against the Axis of Feeble. It is time to move forward and embrace a discourse that loves and dreams. Let's become men and women of stature, let's become lovers who dream and dreamers who love. The World of cornucopia and eutopia is closer than we ever thought possible. We live the best world we have ever inhabited. We are at a tipping point. Let's get on Tardis and travel in time. Let's believe, dare and act, therefore we are.
I urge those that did not give up their dreams. I urge you to stand up and shout the urgency of our time. I encourage those that never lost the hope to see the great evils of our time evaporate. It is never late, dreamers, to stand up and start the walk. I stood up and started the walk and decided to never stop because I found gladiators that fought and fight an intellectual war against the Pirates that wish to perpetuate a status quo that benefits a minority.
Get out and wake up visionaries of our time. It is your time, do not forsake it. Get out and wake up Expert Dreamers, we owe what we are to the great visionaries of the 1940s and 1950s, let's become the great visionaries of our time and dare in order to materialize the World of 2050, that I once inhabited in my dreams.
I miss you Decemland, I shall not stop this Journey that will accelerate trends and lead us to the best world we have ever inhabited.
It is time, it is our time, let's move ahead.
Find more about Jaime Pozuelo-Monfort at http://Monfort.ORG