World Economic Forum at Davos Finally Makes Redeeming News -The iPINIONS Journal

The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland is an annual gabfest that attracts A-list heads of state, international financiers, academics, philanthropists, politicians, and celebrities. Therefore, it speaks volumes that the only redeeming news from this year’s gathering (January 22-25) is that someone finally had the balls to tell them what hypocrites they are.

That daring soul was 30-year-old Dutch historian Rutger Bregman. And he seems bound to become as much a prick to the conscience of rich do-gooders as Bjorn Lomborg has been to that of self-righteous environmentalists. (If you don’t know who Lomborg is, you don’t know much about climate change.)

Bregman became a viral sensation last month for calling out the rich for using “stupid charity schemes” to avoid paying taxes:

I hear people talking the language of participation and justice and equality and transparency, but then, almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance, right?

We can invite Bono once more. … But [t]axes, taxes, taxes! All the rest is bullsh*t in my opinion.

(The Daily Mail, January 30, 2019)

My take on Bregman’s tongue lashing is that the rich engage in a perverse form of double-dipping: first they avoid paying millions in taxes; then they use a small percentage of those millions to fund charitable foundations.

The latter is especially insidious because the rich end up reaping more value in reputational goodwill than the millions they avoided paying in taxes in the first place. Simply put, this is like a fat cat dining and dashing out on a $500 bill and then being praised for tipping the valet $50 before driving off in his expensive car.

As it happens, though, Bregman was only echoing the clarion call liberals like Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocazio-Cortez were already sounding. Not to mention the compelling way Anand Giridharadas argues — in Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World — that “charity” is just a way for the rich to assuage their tax-avoidance guilt

Even I preempted Bregman by calling BS on this forum itself in “From Washington to Davos, Calls to Stop Rich Getting Richer Just Hot Air,” January 21, 2015.

Unfortunately, our calls have invariably proved Sisyphean. I have lamented this in many commentaries, including “Paradise Papers Out Elizabeth II as Tax-Dodging Queen,” November 7, 2017, “Leaked Panama Papers Affirm More than Reveal Offshore Banking Secrets,” April 6, 2016, “Obama on Debt and Taxes,” September 19, 2011, and “Only the Little People Pay Taxes,” April 15, 2006.

Nonetheless, this eminent historian lends greater credibility to enacting fairer tax policies. Collecting more from the rich could help pay for things like universal healthcare, free education, and improved infrastructure. The categorical imperative of doing so has never been more warranted.

After all, the signature legislative achievement of the Trump presidency to date is “tax reform” that is burdening the poor to give the rich a $1 trillion tax cut. This alone justifies the following headline from Monday’s edition of Politico:

Soak the rich? Americans say go for it. Surveys are showing overwhelming support for raising taxes on top earners.

The following puts Politico’s headline into greater context:

Approximately 82 percent of the money generated last year went to the richest 1 percent of the global population, the report said, while the poorest half saw no increase at all.

Last year, Oxfam said billionaires would have seen an uptick of $762 billion — enough to end extreme poverty seven times over. …

Just 42 people own the same amount of wealth as the poorest 50 percent worldwide, a new study by global charity Oxfam claimed.

(CNBC, January 22, 2018)

I am all too mindful, however, that this trend of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is as old as the common cold. Which is why I fear scientists will find the cure for that cold before politicians enact policies to redress this trend.

In the meantime, I will settle for folk heroes like Bregman entering the lion’s den that is Davos and calling out the rich.

I especially like that he echoed one of my pet peeves by noting the “bewildering irony” of attendees flying in on over 1500 private jets. After all, the keynote forum featured acclaimed natural historian Sir David Attenborough bemoaning the environmental damage humans are inflicting on the planet.

To hear these rich folks lamenting about the depletion of the ozone, the increasing gap between haves and have nots, and the almost criminal waste of non-renewable energy, one would think they jet-pooled to Davos on ethanol-fueled airplanes; whereas they all flew in on gas-guzzling, air-polluting private jets.

(“Attendees Emit More CO2 than Solutions at Davos World Economic Forum,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 29, 2007)

I wrote that over a decade ago. But I’ve been writing about Davos attendees/grandees the way Bregman lashed them for even longer. Here, for example, is the contempt I hurled at them in “Why All the Fuss about the World Economic Forum,” January 30, 2006:

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The World Economic Forum … is an annual event at which corporate titans, international bankers, world leaders, and a smattering of celebrity do-gooders gather to bloviate about the impact of worldwide developments on their respective businesses, personal wealth, and collective conscience. Politicians and celebrities change from year to year, but the regulars are invariably the same CEOs, investors, and managers who represent the world’s super rich.

The forum is promoted as ‘impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.’ But movers and shakers know the reason an invitation to this retreat is so coveted is that it’s a rare (and rarified) opportunity to see, and to be seen amongst, the people who really rule the world. And, the PR value of such images alone is priceless. …

The wealthiest one percent would have the rest of us believe that Davos is all about addressing world economic problems that affect our lives. That’s why the most talked-about feature of their gathering is not the (main-event) schmooze-fests for business opportunities; rather, it’s the (undercard) gabfests for charitable causes – at which invited guests sit on panels and blow hot air on issues like climate change and the plight of the poor.

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In any event, as disastrous and potentially destructive as the Trump presidency might be, the above shows why it is just a virulent strain of the pandemic of income inequality and unfair taxation. But this did not stop me from lampooning his inaugural visit to this gabfest last year in “Trumpeting Hot Air, Trump Is Perfect Davos Pitchman,” January 26, 2018.