Davos And Dread

Interesting piece in the Washington Post recently, “Sanders, Warren are hot discussion topics as global elites gather in Davos” by Heather Long. According to Ms. Long, the billionaires and other elites meeting in Switzerland are--shall we say? Concerned that the world’s young people are turning increasingly to the Left, embracing socialism (or something like it), and demanding action on climate change. The Davosoids are even more concerned, it seems, with the possibility of a President Warren or Sanders.

To give them their due, the Davos attendees are aware that things have gone horribly wrong on their watch, and that they need to do something to address climate change and the ever growing inequality of the rich and everyone else. They even seem to be thinking about ways to fix the problems. Long writes, “At Davos, the buzzword this year is ‘stakeholder capitalism,’ the idea that companies have a responsibility to the environment and society to do more than maximize profits.”

Which is good. But several things worry me. First, of course, will the attendees do more than talk? It’s all very well to admit that something is a problem. It is quite another to do anything about it.

But, second, and maybe more importantly, even if they act, are the Davos attendees the people who are the most dangerous? Let’s face it. CEOs and the managers of giant hedge funds aren’t stupid. And they tend to be pragmatists who do what is necessary to survive. If that means accommodating activist governments and environmental regulation, they will do it. They may not like it. But they’ll do it.

However, there is another class of the rich and powerful...people who are less pragmatic and more driven by ideology. The Koch Brothers (now down to one Brother) and RupertMurdoch are not moved just by greed or even self-interest, though heaven knows those are big on their agenda. Rather, their motives include a deep, abiding, and almost religious belief in the divine holiness of their own wills. What they want is sacred, and any attempt to limit them in any way is profane beyond measure.

For such people,  the good intentions of Davos will seem, at best, irrelevant, and at worst, high treason to the cause.

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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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