INFONOMIST MANIFESTO
1. The world functions because it is full of normal people doing extraordinary
things. Without their efforts, which usually go unnoticed,
the economic and social machine would not keep turning.
2. Collaboration is more productive than competition, particularly
when a large part of the population has shareable knowledge. But, in
general, we do not yet have non-financial economic mechanisms that
allow us to take advantage of this possibility (we all want to take part,
but we also want to pay our bills…).
3. People, not public administrations, are the engines of progress. The
function of administrations is to create conditions so that people can
embark on projects, and thus find solutions to social problems. They
need to plan platforms and infrastructures, and ensure equal opportunities.
But, beyond that, they must not prevent people’s creativity
from developing by supplanting them when it is not necessary.
4. Progress is not possible without equal opportunities. Without equality
(principally in education), the distance between the different social
classes gradually widens. The state must apply an intelligent tax system
to ensure this cannot happen.
5. Young people should have more support, and also more challenges.
Overprotection jeopardises their ability to face the future. Helping
them to understand the kind of future, global and rapid, they will
grow into requires a change to the education system, which for example,
ought not to allow a university qualification without prior study
or employment abroad. We have to make them more responsible, and
stimulate their desire for leadership.
6. We need to establish mechanisms to connect ideas with power.
Those who want to with those who can. Unfortunately, this connection
does not normally happen spontaneously; we have to create the
conditions to encourage it.
7. It is vital that children learn the basics of business at school.
Concealing information about how wealth is really created in society
only encourages children to pursue a career in local government
(which is important for society, but shouldn’t be the default vocation).
8. All members of parliament should gain some experience in business,
and find out for themselves how to earn a living creating value
that somebody is willing to pay for. A society governed by business
illiterates is unable to progress in a system based on capitalism.
9. Education should be personalised. You only get the most out of your
talents when you can connect what you learn with what motivates
you. The education system tends to measure what you don’t know
rather than what you do know. Today’s technology allows disruptive
leaps in learning methods. We only need to do it decisively.
10. Money should be reinvented. And above all, it should be impossible
to make money from money. We need new rules, such as taxes
imposed on the movement of capital on an international scale (the
Tobin tax), or the prohibition of purely speculative sales of securities
(goodwill could be directly related to the length of time the seller has
kept the securities).
Epilogue to my book: Visionomics
