But excessive inequality has the perverse effect of reducing incentives for many people. What happens when people work more and yet make less money? It is discouraging, leading many people to slacken their efforts, abandon dreams of launching or expanding businesses, and perhaps to leave the workforce altogether. It also weakens overall economic activity. For businesses like mine, it means our global customers have less to spend on emerging technologies that could make them more productive. That is what’s happening today. There is a sagging line below Gini’s perfect 45-degree angle that represents growing inequality. I want to avoid the pitfalls of what Marx described as late-stage capitalism—a theoretical time when economic growth and profits collapse—and get back to the returns enjoyed in early stage capitalism. But how? That’s the question most heads of state around the world are also grappling with.

One of the reasons I was so excited about our acquisition of LinkedIn—the talent and employment-oriented social networking service—was a shared commitment we discovered early in our negotiations. In conversations with LinkedIn’s founder, Reid Hoffman, and its CEO, Jeff Weiner, I discovered we had a common desire to use our digital platforms to spread opportunity more equitably to everyone. In fact, The New Yorker magazine has written about LinkedIn’s vision of making labor markets work better for all 3 billion members of the global workforce by making those markets more efficient and open.

John Batelle, Wired’s co–founding editor, once wrote that “Business is humanity’s most resilient, iterative, and productive mechanism for creating change in the world.” He is right—and we business leaders need to take seriously our responsibilities as change leaders. I don’t say this for purposes of so-called corporate social responsibility, which is important but can also serve as little more than good PR. I say it because a better world is better for business. It’s important to be dedicated to creating great products, serving customers, and earning profits for our investors—but it’s not sufficient. We also need to think about the impact of our actions on the world and its citizens long into the future.