How can Trump alone cause so much damage?

Trump is not alone. He got more than 77 million votes, more than the population of France.

Many of these voters have been struggling economically and felt humiliated by mainstream voices. Voting for a leader promising quick fixes is appealing when you feel hopeless and have lost dignity.

Together, politicians across parties, mainstream media, investors, we promoted the idea that globalization would benefit everyone, at least in theory. I’m a fund manager, and I include myself in this class, even if I disagree with many of my peers’ practices.

Our class ignored their suffering by supporting deregulations and globalization that moved too fast and destroyed jobs. Unlike earlier industrial transformations, which unfolded over longer periods and were gradually absorbed by societies, globalization and digitalization reshaped economies within just a few decades.

Public discourse often framed their situation as a personal or moral failure, offering the gig economy as a solution, which only deepened their sense of humiliation. Few of us acknowledged their suffering, and collectively we failed to offer a shared narrative to cope with hardship. We pretended that all was fine for everyone because all was fine for us.

Our class, the people with disproportionate influence over decision-making beyond our own votes, promoted short-term, weakly regulated capitalism. Financial returns were easy to measure, while social and environmental costs were ignored. And because the consequences remained distant from our lives, there was little incentive for us to change anything.

To my regret, we departed from responsible capitalism, cautiously managed for the long term, taking into account all stakeholders (employees, customers, environment, etc.). It was doomed to fail eventually. These dynamics did not emerge by accident but are rooted in incentives, rules, and priorities we collectively accepted. Now we pay the price of their legitimate anger.

How did we lose control?

In our quest to optimize returns, we pursued specialization.

We chunked roles into such narrow domains of expertise that eventually no one felt responsible for any reckless actions.

If a house collapses because of one massive hole in the roof, responsibility is clear. But when hundreds of small leaks are left unrepaired, each one seems insignificant on its own. Over time, the structure rots, and the house becomes unlivable, even though no single leak appears responsible.

In practice, it works like this: investors allocate money to an index like the SP500. CEOs optimize profits to meet mandates. Consultants recommend focusing on core activities. Private equity restructures companies through layoffs. Other firms refuse to hire displaced workers because offshore labor is cheaper. Each agent performs only one limited, legitimate, and rational action. Yet social and environmental costs are never accounted for at any step. Nobody did anything immoral individually, but all contributed to a social and environmental catastrophe collectively.

The election of Trump is what happens when structural pressures are left unaddressed until they find expression elsewhere. Global warming is another consequence of billions of small bad decisions around the globe.

What can we do about it?

1. First, we need systemic change, not individual change.

We have been using the individual argument precisely to remain unaccountable for polluting industries. We need to do a u-turn on that. If we continue to blame individuals instead of a broken system, this system will just continue on its path, like a railway toward a cliff. And remember, we are stuck in that train; we don’t have any second homes on Mars yet. So the first rule is: the system is broken, not people. We fix the system; we don’t blame people.

2. Second, since we need systemic change, our most potent weapon is education.

Our class needs to learn from its mistakes. There is great news here: many people already sense that the system is broken. The harder task is changing the mindset of those who shape rules, narratives, and incentives. We need to clean our own house first. There is no point in blaming the average populist voter; they are just the consequences of our actions. Trump is a symptom, not a cause.

3. Third, specifically, we need to push for deep structural reforms.

We need to nurture long-term, responsible leadership (both in politics, media, and money management) while penalizing short-termism. For starters, we need social and environmental accounting for all organizations. I’m not talking about public-relations greenwashing, but strict legal rules to account for social and environmental costs. Then, we should heavily tax whatever is short-term in nature and reduce taxes on anything that is socially good and long-term. Only then will we have a balanced system working for the long term.

4. Fourth, we must rebalance where risk and accountability sit in the system.

For decades, we have privatized gains while socializing losses. Companies, investors, and decision-makers benefit from upside, while communities absorb job losses, environmental damage, and social breakdown. This imbalance fuels resentment and delegitimizes institutions. Rebalancing means:

• Linking executive compensation and investment returns to long-term outcomes, not quarterly metrics.
• Making layoffs, offshoring, and environmental damage carry real, measurable costs for those who decide them.
• Ensuring that those who benefit most from the system also bear responsibility when it destabilizes society.

This is not about punishing success. It is about aligning incentives with social stability. A system where risk is pushed downward while rewards flow upward will always produce political backlash.

Countries like Finland show that when long-term incentives, strong social safety nets, and accountability are aligned, social stability and economic performance can coexist.

Granted, no one is excited to pay 40% taxes to finance social welfare. I still believe it is cheaper than gambling our children’s future.

If we fail to reform a system that harms society, political backlash will continue to grow, and no amount of institutional protection will restore legitimacy.