My Xmas Dream

Xmas is a time of reflection, of meditation on how the world faring. But the situation for many is dire. In the United States one out of zeven people live in poverty, getting their food from foodbanks whose budgets are now being cut by the government. In Syria, hundreds of thousands if not millions live in tents, with hardly enough blankets and clothes to keep them warm. In Central Africa rebel bands kill and rape in ways beyond our worst imaginations. In the meantime, a few fortunate bankers, traders, investors and CEOs of mega-companies make millions or even billions. This unequal distribution of wealth is perhaps the most disturbing fact of all.

At Xmas time we buy off our conscious by giving to charity. But most big charities are run as full scale companies these days. For instance, Salil Shetty, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International earns $305,000 a year. I wonder, how do you justify to Joe the carpenter who earns a tenth of that amount per year to give generously? This world is deeply twisted.

So then here is my Xmas dream. Let's build a company with the brightest minds in the world. Everyone who joins can not earn more than a modest salary (or if you do this on the side, you will earn nothing at all). We will join forces to develop the most amazingly intelligent algorithms to suck the financial markets dry. (Our secret algorithms will of course based on deep learning.) We will wreck the large trading firms into bankruptcy. With the billions of dollars that we earn with trading we will refrain from buying ourselves that Ferrari, but instead we will save the rainforest, educate the world, provide food and shelter for those who need it.

That is my Xmas dream. Who wants to join?