Guys like Pedro didn't care how they got their money. As long he was able to get some money to cruise around the world like a playboy, that's all he cared about. Heck, I bet that members of Pedro's crowd wouldn't mind a return to slavery if it meant more money for them.
In fact, Goldman Sachs, who Pedro works for, has been caught funding projects that invest in slavery in Sudan. Goldman Sachs handled the IPO of PetroChina, the parent company of which was using forced labor in Sudan.
One time when I was in Brazil, Pedro took me to his family's massive plantation several hours outside of Rio de Janeiro. Picture the modern-day version of the plantation from "Gone with Wind," except bigger and with a full gym, sauna, steam room, two pools, satellite TV, Wi-Fi and a man-made lake full of jet skis.
While the plantation might have been a more high-tech version of Tara, the antiquated mentality of the 19th century plantation capitalism was very much alive. The type of capitalism that said some people were meant to be poor and powerless and others like Pedro to be the rulers of society. One or two of the dozen or so servants that lived on the plantation were direct descendants of the slaves that had lived there a few generations earlier.
Pedro showed me pictures of what the plantation used to look like in the good old days when it was an actual plantation full of slaves rather than a pleasure resort. He even showed off the old slave chains. As an advocate for workers' rights, I didn't share his enthusiasm for this particular historic relic. It was about one of the most awkward experiences of my life, until we had dinner.
