Jo M. Sekimonyo is a political economist, theorist, human-rights activist, and social philosopher, the self-styled Merchant of Ideas, who makes economics argue with reality. Congolese-born, American-fermented, and globally bottled, he is known for puncturing comfortable myths in economic discourse and replacing them with frameworks grounded in contemporary evidence.
His signature contribution, Ethosism, challenges the twin orthodoxies of capitalism and socialism. Reframing the modern enterprise as a capability engine, he argues that labor is not a cost center but the primary beneficiary of value creation. He links recurring crises and debt cycles to long-standing imbalances in surplus distribution between labor and capital, distortions amplified by technology’s expansion of profits.
Sekimonyo’s Propensity to Act (Threshold) Model reframes human behavior: people are rational minimizers who act when need, sentiment, and proximity converge to break indifference, explaining why incentives often fail and small triggers can spark collective action.
His proposed global-debt reset rejects charity-style relief in favor of new credit channels: Nation-Centered Allocation ($1 trillion per state) and Per Capita Distribution ($10 000 per person). He contends this would raise living standards, curb poverty and migration, and finance climate adaptation worldwide.
As a governance alternative, Ideacracy places ideas, not identities, at the center: policies compete publicly, are piloted before scaling, scored transparently, and expire unless results justify renewal.
Sekimonyo also develops the Social Contract Ratio (SCR) to measure dignity and reciprocity across postcolonial states.
Founder of En Charge and Visionary behind Université Lumumba, Sekimonyo turns theory into debate, debate into design, and design into practice. His works, translated into more than ten languages, confront poverty, global debt, and performative egalitarianism while elevating human creativity as development’s decisive engine.
"Socialism and Communism have failed, but now Capitalism is failing us."
Jo M. Sekimonyo
