Historian Confronts DAVOS Elite: 'Stop Talking Philanthropy, Start Paying Higher Taxes'
- "Historian's Advice to Davos Elite Worried About Pitchforks: 'Stop Talking About Philanthropy' and Start Paying Higher Taxes."- Jan. 29, 2019.
While the private jets have mostly left the airport outside of Davos, Switzerland following the conclusion of this year's World Economic Forum, a little noticed exchange that took place during the annual gathering has picked up steam in recent days showing what it looks like when some of the world's richest people are confronted by someone willing to call literal "bullshit" on the we-can-save-the-world-with-charity mantra that dominates among the global elite.
"I mean we can talk for a very long time about all these stupid philanthropy schemes. We can invite Bono once more. But, come on, we've got to be talking about taxes. That's it. Taxes, taxes, taxes. All the rest is bullshit in my opinion." - historian Rutger Bregman.
If the world's richest and most powerful are worried about a so-called popular "backlash" in response to the global economic system they defend—and largely control—Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and author of the book Utopia for Realists, during a panel last week titled "The Cost of Inequality," said the pathway is not complicated. "The answer," he said, "is very simple: Just stop talking about philanthropy, and start talking about taxes."
Also on the Davos panel with Bregman was Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International. Just last week, as the WEF summit was just opening, Oxfam released a report on global inequality showing that just 26 billionaires now own as much wealth as the world's 3.8 poorest billion people.
~ "‘It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water."- This historian wasn’t afraid to confront the billionaires at Davos about their greed. -More and VIDEO...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/29/historians-advice-davos-elite-worried-about-pitchforks-stop-talking-about
- Dutch historian & author Rutger Bregman told those at last week's Davos summit his advice: "Just stop talking about philanthropy, and start talking about taxes."
(1 min.) Rutger Bregman at Davos, "Why Is Nobody Talking About Taxes?"
= new reply since forum marked as read
"It’s time to switch to a four-day working week, say these two Davos experts," World Economic Forum, Jan. 25, 2019.
Adam Grant, a psychologist from the Wharton School in Pennsylvania, said: "I think we have some good experiments showing that if you reduce work hours, people are able to focus their attention more effectively, they end up producing just as much, often with higher quality and creativity, and they are also more loyal to the organisations that are willing to give them the flexibility to care about their lives outside of work."
Economist and historian Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists agrees, and explained that a shorter working week is not actually that radical – policymakers have been trying to figure out how to give the workforce more leisure time for the best part of a century. "For decades, all the major economists, philosophers, sociologists, they all believed, up until the 1970s, that we would be working less and less," he said...
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/2-davos-experts-says-it-s-time-to-switch-to-a-four-day-working-week/
Rutger Bregman at the WEF, Davos 2019.
