Davos In The Dock

A while back,  I wrote about how the Davos attendees say they want the world to be a better place, but that they might not do a thing about it. However, I did give them the benefit of a doubt.

Robert Reich, a wiser man than I, is having none of that.  In an op-ed piece in The Guardian, “Trump is on trial for abuse of power – the Davos elites should be in the dock too,” he presents us with a capitalist elite that should be held accountable for very serious crimes against humanity. He writes, “Trump is charged with abusing his power. Capitalism’s global elite is under assault for abusing its power as well: fueling inequality, fostering corruption and doing squat about climate change.”

He also thinks that things will get no better. The CEOs and hedge fund managers who chatter about “stakeholder capitalism” in Switzerland, will simply keep on doing what they’ve always done, i.e., bankrupting the rest of us to make themselves even more obscenely rich. “Nothing will be achieved in the Swiss Alps,” he says, “because the growing global discontent has yet to affect the bottom lines of the corporations and financial institutions whose leaders are assembling to congratulate themselves on their wealth, influence and benevolence.”

Is he right? Well, I’ve got to confess, he’s been right a lot in the past. And I haven’t seen a whole lot from Davosoids suggesting he’s wrong now.

So...if that’s the case...what do we need to do “to affect the bottom lines of he corporations and financial institutions?” And make them change their ways?

Before, that is, they destroy capitalism, life on earth, our futures, and...yes...even themselves?


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Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



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