Dear reader,
I am the CEO of an impact investing company. My theory of change and ideas on how to improve our world live largely outside the bounds of electoral politics. I believe the greatest influencers of policy and human behavior are the market-makers, not the legislators.
That said, the importance of political stability and good governance cannot be understated. In the past 8 months over 230,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., and I do not think any honest person would argue that things would not have been different if the Trump administration had not been holding the kingdom keys during this time.
This is the first presidential election I have been a part of and I watched the process closely. In a pre-corona world I read every poll, donated to the Yang, Williamson, and Bernie campaigns, and genuinely believed that after four years of madness America would wake up to its insanity. I was wrong. Not only was a centrist chosen as the democratic nominee, but a centrist who actively participated in many of America’s most recent failures. I was further disillusioned when after the largest protest movement in American history against the violent policing system, I watched him go on television and talk about how he thought the solution to extra-judicial killings was more de-escalation training and the solution to systemic racism was a corporate tax to fund public education.
The sigh of relief around Joe Biden’s likely presidency is real, but it feels racialized in ways I lack the nuance to explain. When I’m at work I think about tax codes, trade regulation, and environmental destruction, but when I’m lying awake at night unable to sleep I think about whether the police will show up at my house looking for someone who doesn’t live there and I or someone I love will end up dead because of it and it will not matter that I am a CEO, attended a prestigious university, or that I voted for Joe Biden.
I write with such candor not to be pessimistic, but to be honest about how much more has to be done. Before the Trump years, our society was rife with inequality, sickness, hunger, addiction, violence, and corruption and if we as a collective do not wake up then we will never escape this cycle of suffering.
After 8 months of racial strife, economic destruction, and lethal pandemic I hope you see that our society is broken in a way that electoral politics cannot fix. Nick Estes said it best, “Biden and Trump spent an obscene $11 billion on their campaigns. But many people will be without homes, healthcare, and food tonight”. There are many ballots still uncounted and the race is tight, but no matter who wins it is clear that we must all play an active role in the necessary fundamental changes.
My role is working to redefine economic systems, ownership models, and creating a financial universe that doesn’t run roughshod over any and everyone in search of profits. I cannot define your role, but I hope you will accept and pursue it with all the strength of your heart.
Be well,
Nicholas
Chief Executive Officer
Suggested readings:
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- A Politics of Love by Marianne Williamson
- Our History is The Future by Nick Estes
- Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
- Eudaimonia & Co. by Umair Haque
