Since 1971, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has hosted an annual “conference in the Swiss Alps” to spread “stakeholder capitalism,” a fancy term for global socialism.
The first annual meeting included “450 participants from 31 countries – managers from various companies in Europe, as well as members of the European Commission, and leading academics from U.S. universities – gathered in the Alpine valley to discuss better management techniques.”
On January 19, the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos will host “close to 3,000 cross-sector leaders from over 130 countries” with the goal “to make sense of global challenges and to move the world forward together.”
Meanwhile, for those interested in a very different view on global socialism, the first-ever World Prosperity Forum (WPF) will be held in Zurich, Switzerland, from January 19 to 23.
Hosted by The Heartland Institute, the WPF will “bring together international leaders and policymakers to challenge the globalist, leftist agenda advanced each year at the World Economic Forum.”
Specifically, the WPF will “advance a prosperity-focused, freedom-focused vision rooted in free markets, individual liberty, and rising living standards” to contrast the WEF’s “centralized, top-down vision for the global economy.”
According to Heartland President James Taylor, the WEF’s agenda has produced “stagnation and human misery.”
There is abundant evidence to support that assertion.
In 1971, the WEF was founded by German Professor Klaus Schwab “to promote stakeholder capitalism” and the “transformative point of view: that business should not only to create economic value but also to serve society and the planet.”
The third annual meeting in 1973 was particularly important because it spawned the WEF’s environmental agenda and “participants took the initiative to draft a code of ethics based on Schwab’s stakeholder concept.”
Known as the Davos Manifesto, it stated, “the purpose of professional management is to serve clients, shareholders, workers and employees, as well as societies, and to harmonize the different interests of the stakeholders.”
That is quite a lofty goal for “professional managers.”
In late 2019, the WEF released the “2020 Davos Manifesto,” which makes the original seem modest.
It states, “A company is more than an economic unit generating wealth. It fulfils human and societal aspirations as part of the broader social system. Performance must be measured not only on the return to shareholders, but also on how it achieves its environmental, social and good governance objectives.”
And “Corporate global citizenship requires a company to harness its core competencies, its entrepreneurship, skills and relevant resources in collaborative efforts with other companies and stakeholders to improve the state of the world.”
While the WPF “presents the moral case for freedom, prosperity, and rising living standards, where people can maximize opportunity and personally benefit from the fruits of their own labor,” the WEF will double down on globalist stakeholder socialism.
Whereas the WEF continues to push its failed globalist vision, the WPF highlights the benefits of national sovereignty.
The WPF, in stark contrast to the events in Davos, will also speak truth to power about climate change, the green agenda, ESG, net zero, the unreliability and unaffordability of solar and wind, and the urgent need for abundant, affordable, and reliable energy as nations face surging electricity demand.
In the meantime, the elites in Davos will discuss “how to build prosperity within planetary boundaries,” which is Davos' secret code for “sustainability,” population control, degrowth, etc.
Although they aren’t as overt about climate alarmism as they once were, their green transition agenda still lurks prominently. Absurd as it is, they still cling to the myth that “infrastructure, food systems, and natural ecosystems are all affected by climate change.” Thus, they still preach the need for “nature-based solutions,” the new lingo for environmentally catastrophic solar panels and windmills.
Fortunately, the rise of AI and the necessity for power-sucking data centers have made many Davos-goers change their tune on the whole climate change is an existential threat fable. When Bill Gates spills the beans on climate alarmism and the inability of the green transition to sustain the technology of the future, you know the climate change charade is up.
For me, this is the most important difference between the two competing conferences in Switzerland.
The WEF has a pessimistic vision predicated upon centralized rationing of resources and repressing freedom so that “professional managers” can “harmonize society.”
On the other hand, the WPF has an optimistic vision based on innovation, ingenuity, and liberty.
If world history has taught us anything over the past century, it has certainly demonstrated that when it comes to “organizing society,” decentralized power and decision making far exceed centralized, command-and-control systems.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.