Capitalists, Arise!

Summary

Peter Georgescu explains how his American Dream journey-from refugee to the CEO of Young & Rubicam-is no longer possible, and the underlying culprit is shareholder primacy. The income gap is growing larger and larger, and Georgescu argues that only a return to a true form of capitalism will begin to decrease that gap.


Peter Georgescu is scared, as are some of his more farsighted fellow millionaires and billionaires-not "of Al Qaeda or the vicious Islamic State or some other evolving radical group . . . We are afraid of where income inequality will lead."

So begins both his 2015 op-ed piece in the New York Times, which generated over 1,000 comments, and this book. Georgescu believes the capitalism that allowed a penniless refugee like him to rise to the top no longer exists. He vividly depicts the damage income inequality is doing and examines the trends and developments that have led to our current crisis. He argues to his fellow capitalists that they are the ones best positioned to fix this problem because they can directly address it. They need to look beyond a single-minded focus on maximizing the short-term profits their shareholders demand and serve the interests of all their stakeholders-employees, customers, society, and the environment. This book offers solutions, which are deep, rich, and compelling.