The manifesto in plain words
Your talent is yours, but it grows thanks to everyone. That is why those who receive a great deal give part of it back, and no one is left behind.
1. No rule lasts forever
Societies change, and they must be able to change without violence. We do not believe in a perfect society designed on paper: history has shown us what those cost. We believe in a society that can notice its own mistakes and fix them.
2. Everyone has a task
We are not born equal: our talents, health and families differ. But every one of us can become more than we were. That is the equality we care about, which we call uguaglianza del compito, the equality of the task: not that everyone has the same, but that everyone can grow. No birth should be a life sentence.
3. No one shines alone
We call brillio the moment when someone sees that a thing could be done differently, and does it. The best surgeon works with tools, schools, hospitals and knowledge that others built before them. Their talent is their own. But what they earn also comes from what we have built together. That is why we say talent is a loan.
4. The fascia di garanzia: two thresholds
The fascia di garanzia (literally, the guarantee band) is the mechanism at the heart of the manifesto.
- Below a minimum threshold, no one is left alone: housing, health care, schooling and time to learn are guaranteed.
- Between the two thresholds there is full freedom: what you earn is yours.
- Above a very high threshold, part of your wealth gradually returns to the community.
The fascia places no limit on success, on great work or on discovery. It limits only fortunes so large that they become power over other people.
5. It is not envy, and it is not charity
We do not want those who have a lot to stop having it. We want them to give back part of what they received. It is a duty, not a favour. And what is given back must actually reach the people who need it: an independent body checks this, and the accounts are public.
6. School opens doors; it does not impose ideas
The state guarantees every child the tools to grow: reading, numbers, reasoning, and contact with ways of life different from their own. It does not tell them what to think. Families bring up their children, but no one, neither the family nor the state, may close off a child's future.
7. You can disagree
Anyone who disagrees with a rule can challenge it, and must have a real way to change it. In the meantime, they follow it. A few rules cannot be touched, because they are the rules of the game itself: no violence, freedom to criticise, public and verifiable information, and protection of children.
8. We put our own ideas to the test
Every proposal states in advance how we will know whether it is working: with numbers, dates and checks carried out by independent people. If the facts prove us wrong, we correct course, and the correction happens automatically, without waiting for permission from whoever got it wrong.
9. What we do not know yet
Two problems remain open, and we say so. The first is the power of those who control platforms, data and artificial intelligence: the fascia measures wealth, and this kind of power does not run through wealth. The second is the risk that large fortunes simply move abroad. We are working on both.
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We do not promise a perfect society. We promise a society that corrects itself: where no poverty is a destiny, no wealth is a throne, and no mistake, not even our own, is forever.
A plain-language version of the Manifesto for a Society of the Free and Equal, drawn from Il brillio. Il talento è un prestito. In Italian: Il manifesto in parole semplici.