U.S. citizens need to revolutionize the way they think about corporations, a New York Times best-selling author said at Boston University Tuesday. Author and former economic hitman John Perkins, hosted by BU Anti-War Coalition, called on students to think of corporations as requiring a social conscious. ‘Use your passions and talents to create a sustainable, just and peaceful world,’ Perkins told more than 125 students in Morse Auditorium. ‘The U.S. is no longer run by we, the people, and we must take it back.’ Perkins said the U.S. has evolved through a form of capitalism that benefits the very rich at the cost of everyone else. Businesses want to maximize profits without regard to social and environmental issues, and this ‘corporatocracy’ will ultimately lead to self-destruction, he said. Perkins worked as an economic hitman for 10 years, convincing Third World countries with desirable resources to accept oversized loans for infrastructure development and to contract the development projects to U.S. corporations, according to his website. These countries became burdened with huge debts, allowing the U.S. government to control their economies.’ Countries that could not pay off their debt instead gave the U.S. a percentage of their resources, voted Americans into the United Nations or allowed the U.S. to build military bases on their land, Perkins said. This ensured that resources were directed to serve the U.S.’s interests of building a global empire. ‘If economic hitmen failed, we sent in jackals to assassinate leaders,’ he said. ‘If they failed too, we sent in the military. In this way, we’ve created a subtle empire. Corporations don’t have boundaries.” According to his website, in 1980, Perkins founded an alternative energy company and was rewarded for not disclosing his EHM past. After selling the company in 1990, Perkins used his expertise on indigenous rights and environmental movements to work as a teacher and writer, promoting ecology and sustainability. Soon after, Perkins founded the nonprofit organization Dream Change which promotes sustainable lifestyles, according to his website. After 9/11, Perkins publicly revealed his hitman past in ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,’ published in 2004.’ ‘Every human being on Earth is confronted for the first time in history by the same crisis,’ Perkins said. ‘Climate change, overpopulation, prices increasing, violence out of desperation, starvation and limited resources.” For the first time, everyone is also communicating via new technology, meaning there is a very real opportunity for change, he said. Perkins pointed out areas where consumers can make a difference. ‘The president doesn’t have the power,’ he said. ‘Corporations still hold the power. We must be the ones to create change. Corporations are dependent on you and me. The marketplace is essentially democratic.’ Perkins cited cutting out trans fats and cleaning up polluted rivers as examples of people successfully effecting change in the government.’ ‘If people refuse to buy from Nike because they use sweatshops, then Nike will be forced to change,’ he said. Perkins gave other examples of individual acts that can make a difference, such as buying ‘green,’ drinking tap water, or joining organizations. ‘Every time you buy, sell or make something, it should help the planet,’ Perkins said.’ ‘This is a phenomenal time in history,’ he said. ‘There are incredible opportunities to make a difference.” Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitations junior Pinkey Shah said she was impressed with the speech. ‘I’m amazed at what he’s been through and what he’s done,’ she said. ‘His speech was really inspirational.’ Nikolai Skievaski, an economics graduate student at BU, said companies should be aware of society when attempting to maximize profits.’ ‘From day one you’re taught profit maximization,’ he said. ‘But it seems like companies won’t be profitable if they’re not sustainable . . . I think companies can maximize profits but on a socially tolerable level.’