Davos 2012 – The Return of Medieval Robber Barons

Davos 2012 has come and gone with hardly a flicker of press attention this year, which is a good thing really. Why so little press coverage? Nothing “newsworthy” is going on. In spite of the world economic problems and the crisis in the Eurozone the wheels of big business continue to turn….and they are turning pretty well actually. Checkout the number of Google Searches for “wef Davos 2012″ and you will find that there are only 880 global searches a month. Pretty pathetic for something that is supposed to be so influential don’t you think? So what is really going on at Davos 2012??? Well, it certainly looks like the continued decline in conventional politics at the expense of the rise of Big Business who are pulling the strings of all the politicians. These Medieval Robber Barons are now the people in real power….checkout the size of some of these huge global corporations…they have a global turnover larger than many countries.

The Davos Circus:

What started off in 1971 by Klaus Schwab as an informal annual meeting of artists, politicians, scientists and entrepreneurs has now turned into a fully fledged year round circus enabling the people who really run the world to meet each other and carve up the available markets for themselves. Davos 2012 had 2600 participants including 40 heads of state, 80 politicians and over 1600 corporate bosses. Start to get the idea? With an official motto of “Committed to improving the state of the World” we could have expected better….but in reality it is the same old story that has been going on since Medieval Robber Barons carved up Europe. Interestingly another theme for Davos 2012 was the “Future of Capitalism”…..clearly it has already been superseded by the Super Elite who now run the world and make deals from behind closed doors.

The Song Remains the Same:

Capitalism or any other "ism" and the song remains the same.....

Over the next year we will hear a lot more winging from Politicians and Business leaders about how we must all face austerity measures and make sacrifices so that the economy can recover. The fact is that the really Big Business that runs the world does well anyway and politicians also do very nicely as the Tony Blair millions clearly show. Whatever happens the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful. There has been some “trickledown” of wealth, but only enough to make the greedy more greedy….and this is what fuels the cycle.

Use your frugal ideals to help break the cycle. Use the great advances in health and technology to enable you to live a better and happier life while at the same time shunning the consumer economy that just makes the rich richer. Once again congratulations to the World Economic Forum and Davos 2012 for helping us all understand what is really going on!

World Economic What? Is Davos Good?

So what is all the fuss about, and is Davos good for the future of the planet? Every year the circus hits town in Davos, but is it changing anything for the better? The World Economic forum was set up in 1971 by a guy called Klaus Schwab, a German born business professor from the University of Geneva. The first meeting involved 444 European business leaders and the idea was to introduce them to American business techniques. Out of this European Management Symposium the World Economic Forum eventually evolved, with the showbiz annual meetings in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Visit the website and this is how the WEF describes itself: “The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.” Ok, so by now you should be getting a few clues about whether or not Davos is good for the future of the planet or not.

So what exactly is Davos all about?

So now we know the background, is Davos good for the future of the planet or is it just another way of big business carving up the World Market?

• Classic networking – all the top business leaders get to meet up and align their ideas…their ideas, not our ideas
• World Stability – they like a stable environment….guess why? Because its good for business. But not too stable because a few wars are good for arms sales!
• Consumers Society – the main point is to continue the rapid growth of consumerism. Kids today are brought up to be consumers, and by this we mean revenue streams. Catch a kid young with a brand of toothpaste and you have a revenue stream for the next 50, 60 or 70 years. Think how much that is worth !

Is Davos good for the future of the planet…..the answer is certainly no because the interests of the World Economic Forum are based around ensuring a reasonably stable global environment so that they can all continue to do big business. Selling millions of cars (even if they are electric), selling processed food, selling 25 different colours of wellington boots….are these things good for our future and good for the planet? I don’t think so. What we really need to do is harness the benefits and creativity of new technology and separate this from the ruthless and exploiting grip of the leaders of Big Business. Why should people like Bill Gates decide our future? We haven’t voted for him, and yes its great that he gives loads of money to charity, but honestly, nobody can spend 56 billion (or whatever his current fortune is) so he has to give it away!

Time to step down from the soapbox and let you all make up your mind “is Davos good for the future of the planet” or not. Don’t take too long thinking about it though, the ozone layer is already disapearing and global warming is about step up into top gear….The world economy may be crumbling but Big Business and the Financial Institutions are still doing very well thank you!