The Devils Of Davos
https://issuesinsights.com/2022/05/31/the-devils-of-davos/
What happens when the world’s worst gather together to talk about their ideas? Nothing good.
The World Economic Forum that meets in Davos, Switzerland is not just a brood of hypocrites who fly in on private jets so they can mob-lecture the rest of us about our carbon footprints. These people are truly dangerous.
Here’s a quick rundown of a few of the most noxious ideas that emerged from last week’s meeting, which was promoted as “the starting point for a new era of global responsibility and cooperation,” followed by incisive comments we cannot call our own but are fitting of the moment.
- “We need to accept that there will be some pain in the process,” Kjerstin Braathen, chief executive of the Norwegian financial services giant DNB, said about a global effort to cut carbon dioxide emissions. “The pace that we need will open up for missteps; it will open up for shortages of energy; it will create inflationary pressures, and we need to start talking about that.”
“The ruling class can afford this transition, but can the rest of us?” the Washington Times’ Kelly Sadler asked last week. “The billionaires in Davos don’t care – so long as they can hold onto their wealth, power and position. And this week, they were hatching a plan to do just that.”
- “When it comes to business and economic activities, Davos is not a place for narrow self-interest,” WEF chairman and founder Klaus Schwab said. “It is instead a place for the implementation of the notion of stakeholder capitalism, a concept I’m fighting for since 50 years.”
“‘Stakeholder capitalism’ is an oxymoron, and it is a synonym for fascism,” writes Streetwise Professor.
“‘Stakeholder capitalism’ has no limiting principle. It can be used to claim control over anything anywhere anytime … It is a synonym for fascism because it is a variant on corporatism, which is the essence of the fascist economic model.”
- Oxfam executive director Gabriela Bucher supported a 25% global tax on company earnings. She also complained that last year’s Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development agreement for a 15% tax would create a “race to the bottom” in corporate taxation as countries with higher rates would have to cut them to the comply.
“A collection of supposedly intelligent people, with a collection of the worst ideas ever conceived,” says one Twitter user who’s clearly been paying attention.
- Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who is also collaborating with the Biden White House Gender Policy Council – and whose career began, naturally, in the swamp on the Potomac – believes “we’re going to have to think about a recalibration of a whole range of human rights that are playing out online,” including “freedom of speech.”
Mariannne Williamson, a Democratic candidate for president in 2020, said “the World Economic Forum thinking they have any right whatsoever to weigh in on limits to free speech is ridiculous.” Pundit and podcaster Dave Rubin simply said “No you evil freaks, we will not be recalibrating anything.”
- “We’re developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their whole carbon footprint,” J. Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group USA, said during a panel discussion on responsible consumption. “What does that mean? Where they are traveling. How they are traveling. What are they eating. What they are consuming on the platform.”
“I’m sure governments and/or unelected officials will not use this for nefarious purposes,” tweeted @chigrl, who clearly speaks for many.
Anyone who thought that we might have been too harsh in using “devils” in our headline but has read this far is by now thinking that maybe we didn’t go far enough.
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