The World Economic Forum knows never to let a good crisis go to waste. The organization behind the famous conference of politicians, executives, celebrities and “thought leaders” at Davos is now promoting an initiative called “The Great Reset.” The idea is to repackage shibboleths of the technocratic center-left for the marketing opportunity presented by Covid-19.
Quite a few of these policies are dangerous, but one deserves special attention: stakeholder capitalism. Apple, Facebook, IBM and Walmart, all listed as corporate partners on the World Economic Forum website, are evidently on board with a vague and open-ended mandate for corporations to do good in the world. Yet beneath the lofty rhetoric, stakeholder capitalism is mostly a front for irresponsible corporatism. It is an attempt to siphon off cash flow from productive uses to advance the mission of “global governance” and create corporate and government sinecures for cronies along the way.