There was a time when we were led to believe – and some of us indeed so believed – that the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos was the go-to gathering for countries especially developing ones such as Botswana to exchange ideas with global thought leaders on how to accelerate economic growth and thereby create much needed jobs. So it was supposed to be a place for showcasing and reaffirming the power of free market capitalism. WEF also sounded like a place which offered a bigger pond for those looking for– again read Botswana and other developing countries- foreign direct investors and match ups with cutting edge technology providers.
Over time however, the WEF can no longer lay claim to all those noble goals, if they ever did so in the first place. The value that Botswana derives from Davos given the costs of flying people there and even booking exhibition space is highly in doubt. If you think I am deliberately downplaying the importance of the forum, you only have to look at what they discussed at the just ended forum. In their own words, they said that: “The biggest priority is to accelerate progress and the impact of the forum to tackle global challenges – from COVID and climate change to education and global technology … The second objective is to provide a platform for connection, thus fostering the generation of new ideas and innovations, involving communities, projects and individuals willing to share their contributions.”
So there we are; there was no explicit focus on economic growth and how to create conditions to lift people out of poverty. Even if it did, it was overshadowed by the pet project of the elite; climate change. Instead the WEF under the leadership of its chairman and founder Klaus Schwab, is invested in remaking the only system that has proven itself adept at lifting millions out of poverty namely; the free market! The free market has been honed, tried and tested over centuries. It owes its huge success to the fact that it was not developed by neither governments nor WEF. Can you imagine anything that governments have developed or invented and has worked well?
Instead of rationally promoting the free market, it turns out that the WEF is an elitist organisation bent not on advocating for free markets and international trade but a nebulous concept called stakeholder capitalism. The WEF and the elites who descend on Davos view the free market as both unfair and unjust and hence their activism in agitating for stakeholder activism as a substitute for the former.
And what exactly is stakeholder capitalism and why is it nebulous? Stakeholder capitalism- because it posits that capitalism is unfair – downgrades the idea that the raison d’etre of companies is to generate good returns – meaning profits – for shareholders. According to the WEF’s Klaus Schwab, if you work hard at your business, are efficient and generate profits in reasonable time, he insults you by calling you neo-liberal. Instead of generating good returns on your investment by focusing on profitability, Schwab would rather you spent your money on environmental, social and governance issues. He has, if you like, abrogated himself, the power to dictate to you when you should turn in a profit. He say it should only be in the long run, otherwise they will be an uprising by youth. Nothing could be more preposterous and therefore people are looking for jobs not uprisings and therefore profitable companies serve them better.
That the WEF is also preoccupied with a relentless focus on climate change- itself a concept which has unfortunately been turned into politicised science and all sorts of histrionics- begs the real question of whether it really is an event worth attending by Botswana for example, given our scarce resources. The other strange thing about climate change and its derivative the green economy, is that its ardent proponents behave as if it is a concept that enjoys international consensus.
So is the WEF really worth our taxes?
