I'm an economist and a mathematician by training, dual citizen of Italy and the United Kingdom. Despite my penchant for mathematics I went into the family busin

I'm an economist and a mathematician by training, dual citizen of Italy and the United Kingdom. Despite my penchant for mathematics I went into the family business (a medium-sized chemical manufacturing firm). That preamble is necessary as my comments on this must be taken in context with my viewpoint on things. I am constantly horrified by the sheer brutality and unfairness of thinly regulated capitalism in the era of globalisation. Multinational corporate capitalism truly is showing itself to be a force that, in an anti-Robin Hood fashion, takes from the poor to give to the few. Offshoring of labour has gutted the middle classes and forced the lower classes to compete with foreign populations that, starting from a much lower base, are hopelessly competitive. All that is left is service sector jobs and an impossibly high bar to cross into intellectual-work echelons. I used to be very much in favour of globalisation but I am finding that my enthusiasm was very much misplaced. These people are reduced to debt slaves.