Weight loss drugs inventor Lotte Bjerre Knudsen says proudly adding, “I don’t care that much about money.”

One two-part myth people in the (dis)United States ignorantly perpetuate about socialism is that it fails everywhere because it zaps people’s motivation to work. That absent economic incentives, people won’t achieve much of anything.

Ethnocentric capitalists maintain their collective ignorance of socialists, and socialism, by not knowing the Lotte Bjerre Knudsens of the world. Cue a recent LBK interview.

DER SPIEGEL: You have made Novo Nordisk Europe’s most valuable company, with a greater market capitalization than Daimler, Bayer, Lufthansa and BMW combined. Do you benefit financially?

Knudsen: I don’t care that much about money, I’m a socialist! Here in Scandinavia, we teach our children teamwork from an early age. It’s not about the individual. And that’s how I am too. I have never asked for a raise in 34 years.

DER SPIEGEL: You never got more money? Not even now?

Knudsen: Yes, of course. But I didn’t push. I can’t see that capitalism and money make people happy. At Novo Nordisk, I have always preferred to use my credibility to demand more funding for science, not more salary for myself. I also have no intellectual property rights. They belong to the company because I gave them up when I was employed.

I don’t care about money? It’s not about the individual? I can’t see that capitalism and money make people happy?

Holy blasphemy.