1. Social democracy must be resurrected. It is a slogan of the moment, in full struggle with a rising neo-fascism, which emanates from the melancholy of the distant times of Europe's rebirth after the Second World War, the so-called "Trente Glorieuses" (1945-1973), which encompass the apotheosis of the sixties, when everything seemed possible. But how should we read it? In the positive version, recognition of citizens' rights, more social spending, dignification of work, and housing for all as shared goals. However, the repetition, as if it were a litany, becomes suspicious at a time when a large part of the citizenry feels stuck or out of play under the weight of constant acceleration, which with its destructive effects actually hinders any sketch of hope. A time when oppression is transferred to machines at the expense of labor, considerably increasing the concentration of power in the hands that manage them. In fact, it is the nostalgia for a time that was actually shorter and more precarious than we have believed, around the United States, Great Britain, France, and liberated Germany, which dressed up the ephemeral myth of a more or less controlled capitalism, with somewhat idealized levels of equity. Frustration and melancholy are now chained together as, with the transition from industrial to digital and financial capitalism, everything seems upside down in the hands of economic and media powers with enormous polluting capacity.

His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013) catapulted him to global fame. But even then, the French economist Thomas Piketty had been one of the most respected names in economic theory for over a decade, as co-founder of the Paris School of Economics and co-creator of the World Inequality Database. A specialist in the study of inequalities and wealth distribution, Piketty now presents the Global Justice Report, an ambitious economic roadmap that outlines how global inequality can be eliminated and the climate crisis curbed before 2100.

"The poor have understood many things", the Pope said in the Canary Islands on the same day that Space X went public and Elon Musk became the richest man in history. What we don't know is what the South African has learned humanly. Only the speed and vertigo of the changes we are going through explain that the confusion we are experiencing does not explode. In Spain, political confusion turns a pope into a moral reference in a Congress of Deputies poisoned by polarization, which applauds him unanimously for seven minutes. Each one ready to use him in their own way. It is the same confusion that turns Musk, a textbook unbalanced person with zero humanist capacity, into another reference of our times.

"I can do whatever I want with my money; it's mine." Well, that's not exactly true. It's yours, yes. But you can't do whatever you want. The more you have, the clearer it becomes that you've accumulated it thanks to the collective work of many other people, thanks to the existence of infrastructure and public services, thanks to a legal system that ensures the proper functioning of the economy. Therefore, you have to pay taxes; you have an obligation to contribute to maintaining all of this. You can't just go about your business, without taking into account the environment that has favored you. Economist Thomas Piketty states: "You are not alone in the world, and you can't simply say, 'This money is mine.'"

The blackout has brought us face to face with the fragility of everything we have and take for granted. The standard of living achieved in the West (the East is getting its act together) is, in historical terms, spectacular. Of course, this doesn't negate the evidence of the inequalities and vulnerability of so many people, nor the fact that this wealth has been the fruit of brutal processes of colonization or exploitation. That said, and lest I be misunderstood, a poor person today in a democratic Western country is not the same as a poor person a century ago. Just look at general life expectancy or public health, education, and social welfare services, even if they remain limited.