Essay by Eric Worrall
Would you ever trust a group with green champions like Al Gore and EU Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on its board of trustees?
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
DAVOS-KLOSTERS, SWITZERLAND
15–19 January 2024Overview
People, societies and companies face the reality of a world in transformation. In addition to the seemingly endless supply of shocks, with the tragic violence in the Middle East being the most recent, deep structural shifts are clearly afoot from geoeconomics to climate change to artificial intelligence. Given this level of uncertainty and the high stakes involved, there is a clear need to move past the diagnosis of challenges firmly towards solutions.
With trust eroding, long-term visions may be too abstract to rally around, while merely focusing on responses to current shocks will leave everyone vulnerable to the transformations at hand. What is needed are new and upgraded platforms for dialogue, stronger partnerships, agile policy frameworks and effective deployment of technologies that can lead to practical and implementable gains for societies across both short-term and strategic horizons.
The theme
Against this backdrop and to instil a measure of collective agency, it is necessary to start restoring trust at three fundamental levels: into the future, within societies and among nations. Therefore, the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will convene under the theme Rebuilding Trust to provide the crucial space to step back and focus on the fundamental principles driving trust, including transparency, consistency and accountability.
…
Read more: https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/about/
The WEF is of course are the architect of their own PR disaster.
Who can forget World Economic Forum gems like “You’ll own nothing and be happy”, WEF promotion of Greta Thunberg, back when she was politically useful, and of course the many PR blunders of members of their board of trustees like Al Gore and Lagarde?
The WEF Great Reset agenda also stokes distrust. From the World Economic Forum;
…
The Great Reset agenda would have three main components. The first would steer the market toward fairer outcomes. To this end, governments should improve coordination (for example, in tax, regulatory, and fiscal policy), upgrade trade arrangements, and create the conditions for a “stakeholder economy.” At a time of diminishing tax bases and soaring public debt, governments have a powerful incentive to pursue such action.
Moreover, governments should implement long-overdue reforms that promote more equitable outcomes. Depending on the country, these may include changes to wealth taxes, the withdrawal of fossil-fuel subsidies, and new rules governing intellectual property, trade, and competition.
The second component of a Great Reset agenda would ensure that investments advance shared goals, such as equality and sustainability. Here, the large-scale spending programs that many governments are implementing represent a major opportunity for progress. The European Commission, for one, has unveiled plans for a €750 billion ($826 billion) recovery fund. The US, China, and Japan also have ambitious economic-stimulus plans.
Rather than using these funds, as well as investments from private entities and pension funds, to fill cracks in the old system, we should use them to create a new one that is more resilient, equitable, and sustainable in the long run. This means, for example, building “green” urban infrastructure and creating incentives for industries to improve their track record on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.
The third and final priority of a Great Reset agenda is to harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good, especially by addressing health and social challenges. During the COVID-19 crisis, companies, universities, and others have joined forces to develop diagnostics, therapeutics, and possible vaccines; establish testing centers; create mechanisms for tracing infections; and deliver telemedicine. Imagine what could be possible if similar concerted efforts were made in every sector.
…
Read more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset/
A global tax cartel, coordinating spending on the green agenda, and taking inspiration from the Covid-19 response, presumably including Covid-19 era threats to the livelihoods of anyone who didn’t comply with government diktats, and brutal treatment of those who outright refused to comply.
I think we’ve all already had enough of that kind of totalitarianism for this century.
WEF, thanks for your offer to rebuild trust, but no thanks. I’d rather you keep losing.
So, let’s do more gabfests.
Run by the WEF of course.
If you think trust needs to be restored, why would we want you who destroyed trust to be involved at all in restoring said trust?
Such a benevolent elite that they need thousands of police and soldiers, and hundreds of snipers to prevent the little people from expressing their gratitude.
A seal-team greeting for the whole lot of them would be lovely to see.
The simplest way for them to rebuild trust is to dissolve the WEF and—before they turn the lights out on it—to take the EU, UN, IMF, CDC, FDA, FBI, and CIA, as well as any other corrupt agency, with them.
Step aboard the EV bus, the WEF wants to take care of you.
Not by the hair of my chimney chin chin!
Story Tip
Hertz to sell 20,000 EV and go back to ICE cars.
(HTZ) Hertz Rental Giant to Sell 20,000 EVs in Shift Back to Gas-Powered Cars – Bloomberg
You beat me to it.
The Net Zero thing is falling down around the climate alarmists ears.
The WEF and their globalist corporations took lots of taxpayer money to fund the so-called green dream. They now want more taxpayer money to bail them out.
… on a one-way trip to the “re-education camp”.
Dear WEF, the reason you are not trusted is because of the exact agenda you now repeat, thinking that maybe you are distrusted *despite* your oh-so-beneficial ideas for the collective good. NO!
You are not trusted BECAUSE we can see that the high-minded ideas will be bad for us!
Want trust? Ditch the foregoing agenda and promote free speech, individual liberty, free enterprise, and private property. .
/End rant
It’s strange isn’t it? They appear to acknowledge a loss of trust, but are unable to relate it to anything they might have said or done.
More prosaically, their latest prescriptions for the human race include “Depending on the country, these may include changes to wealth taxes,..”
Well, that should go up like a lead Zeppelin, unless they mean abolishing wealth taxes for themselves but not everybody else.
All in all, I’m quite pleased they seem a little downbeat. Poor little rich kids plotting out the future of humanity seem a little disappointed that their power and influence is not rising quite as rapidly as their wealth.
They don’t just want to leave a legacy with their wealth. They want to leave a legacy today. While they are still around to receive the adulation of the masses.
At least many of the original British nouveau riche settled for just building a folly on top of a hill in the Pennines. The American equivalents tried funding some institutions. Not all of them have failed yet, but many have been politically co-opted.
The legacy of people like James Watt is assured in history. They made something useful that people wanted and improved the lives of everybody. Most of these billionaires did actually promote a product that helped us advance, by our own choice. That last clause is key. You have to create something that humanity recognises as having value. Issuing edicts about how the plebs should live or die doesn’t give you a lasting legacy, Bill Gates etc.
Typically, they missed the key questions: Whose trust did we lose? And why?
My wonderation exactly.
It would never dawn on any of them to actually look in a mirror – even tho – that is what their own words say when the mention ‘step back‘
i.e. They have made themselves into a laughing-stock and the last people to realise are they themselves
The very definition of: A Hypocrite
Who would not trust a billionaire ski club? They know everything.
Hand in hand with those two is “What did we do that caused the loss of trust?”
People lose trust because you lied to them or intentionally harmed them without ever admitting fault and apologizing and stopping the behavior.
I have plenty of trust. I trust the people who attend events like Davos to be equal parts oblivious, sanctimonious, and avaricious.
You forgot arrogant and condescending.
And Dangerous to the freedoms of the rest of us. That’s why we don’t like these people and their authoritarian ways. They are the last people we should listen to.
Olympian Christine Lagarde (synchronized swimming) only knows what she’s been told about climate change, which probably isn’t much. A lawyer, of course. One interesting thing about the WEF fraternity party is the partners they’ve signed on. It’s tempting to cut these people some slack, there’s a chance that they attend to defend their own position or maybe just observe and form plans in case the totalitarians gain control of everything. Of course those plans would be on how to operate most effectively and profitably in an WEF structure. They already have an MO for the current situation.
So let’s not give them any slack. Tell Kikkoman that you’re going to put some other soy sauce on your fried rice. Quit buying full page ads in the NYT. Inform Tyson Foods that you’re done with their chicken breasts.
Well, based on the photos of all the attendees at WEF gabfests, it’s certain that none of them are going there to get laid.
(At least not by any of the other attendees 🙁 )
Churchill: We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
DAVOS:At a time of diminishing tax bases and soaring public debt..
…large-scale spending programs that many governments are implementing represent a major opportunity for progress. The European Commission, for one, has unveiled plans for a €750 billion ($826 billion) recovery fund. The US, China, and Japan also have ambitious economic-stimulus plans.
Comment: Churchill wouldn’t agree with Davos. Tax and spend Progressives consistently do the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way.
The article in your link suggests that €310 billion of that recovery fund will go towards the green and digital transition. How is that in any way an investment? We all know this will simply make the developers more wealthy whilst we pay off the debt through our bills. It surely must be accepted now that our electricity bill has become a compulsory contribution to the “transition”.
How does anyone see the transition as an investment? We are paying to transition to a life of poverty, to pay a debt to fund a product that is not fit for purpose.
If the goal is to make the angels sing, one can’t know if he will appreciate the music until it is heard. If it won’t be sung until the bill is paid, he has to make a decision based purely on speculation.
I trust leftists with 101% confidence
To lie, cheat and steal elections
They live for political power and control by any means necessary
Truth is not a leftist value.
Plus I think Al Gore is a dork.
… and John Kerry
Trump was a leftist at one time. might be one again, if the price is right.
If you look at the things he’s said and what he’s done, it becomes apparent that he’s much more of a centrist. While there are aspects of both right and left in what he says, he’s stayed fairly consistently around the centre ground.
I note that their fundamental principles of trust include “transparency, consistency and accountability.” I see no reference to objectivity, honesty, and truthfulness. Perhaps they will hold themselves accountable to be consistently and transparently biased and deceitful.
transparency, consistency and accountability have yet to be demonstrated. All evidence points towards the opposites.
Once trust is lost it is very difficult to restore. WEF now formally recognizes the problem it has created for itself. Another gabfest in Davos won’t fix it.
Did the Club of Rome (I think the precursor of WEF) ever have a lot of trust?
Nope. Especially after wholeheartedly endorsing Malthusian ideas of population control.
Eugenics also had broad popular, legislative, and judicial support in the US for much of the first half of the 20th century. A significant part of that was inherent in abortion issues although once established, abortion rights moved well beyond those considerations.
Most of it was based on beliefs, as contrasted with data and understanding, of “the science”, not unlike today’s climate fantasies.
You lose trust by lying. You can’t get it back by lying more. Let me know when they admit that climate change is not a problem, fossil fuels cannot be phased out by 2050 or even 2100, economies cannot be powered by unreliable renewables and governments cannot print money or barrow to pay interest on their debts indefinitely without going bankrupt eventually. In other words, start telling the truth and I might consider trusting you.
“During the COVID-19 crisis, companies, universities, and others have joined forces ….. Imagine what could be possible if similar concerted efforts were made in every sector.”
Ahhhhhh, NO! Imagine the cockups and loss of life created by officialdom with Covid policies being spread through sectors of life.
Wrong. Extended control over every aspect of life would be possible. That is the dream.
Story Tip
Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/hertz-sell-20-000-evs-123933213.html
Seems the EV rental business plan has run into problems.
oops , didn’t see this .. posted same link up above.
Along with this …. crap ? There is an awakening taking place ….
News tip
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/11/tucker-carlson-outlines-the-farmers-protest-the-biggest-protests-in-german-history/
Good of you to post this, Eric. As I read this I got madder and then came to the punchline: “…taking inspiration from the covid 19 response…”. It isn’t Project Warpspeed and other focused research efforts that bother me, instead (and appropriate to the whole CAGW/WOKE agenda) it’s the fact that $123 billion was mis-spent, and another $280 billion was straight-out stolen (from a total of $4.2 trillion spent by the US Government for Covid Relief). That’s what the whole CAGW deal is, to get enough money flying around that you can skim some off.
The skimmers think they are justified because of all the good they are doing. Read “Atlas Shrugged” if you haven’t already, it’s much weirder than a simple ripoff IMO.
Ayn Rand wrote “Atlas Shrugged” as either satire or as a divulging of how governments dysfunction. I am on the side of satire, and enjoyed her writings.
And to herd the majority into hive like lives.
You will own nothing. And you will be happy.
I think I trust WEF to do exactly what they say they will given the chance;see above. What they don’t have is me trusting in the benevolence of the elite.
These radical leftwing billionaires and other rich elites are the cause of many the problems in the world today, not the solution. Their solution to all problems is to gain control of the rest of us. Now, they are trying to sweettalk us.
It’s not going to work. We won’t be fooled. We see them for what they are; Dangerous Control Freaks.
You may feel that way but the available evidence is that a large percentage of the population is very susceptible .
That’s true. That’s the real problem. I don’t know how to cure that one other than bombarding them with the truth and hope it gets through to them.
A lot of people are easily misled, and there are a lot of people out there who seek to mislead people, and they have the money and the means to do so. To the detriment of the rest of us.
Every time I read or view a Davos speech I imagine sitting in the audience. When Klaus Schwab’s speech ends then standing up at attention with my left arm extend at a 45 degree angle and shouting “Zieg Hile”.
There used to be a full-throated uni-voice chant that went around Australian sports stadiums when the crowd disagreed with a refereeing decision-
“BUULLLSHIIIT, BUULLLSHIIIT”
I reckon this is the most appropriate response to all of Klaus’ sanctimonious missives.
In case you missed his Vaxxmas Hits.
Have the next meeting in Antarctica, forbid fossil fuel transport, meat, heat, light, plastics, and commercial sex. Then we’ll know who really cares about “saving the planet” by who shows up.
Story tip – The Electric Car Con Explained – American Thinker
I am curious to see how they restore something they never had.
One thing is for sure, l have now lost utter trust in the temperature record data post 1985.
Around 90 percent of the world’s weather stations are in urban locations which are warmer than rural locations because of all the asphalt and concrete.
There Is also so much data correcting and smoothing that there is no telling what the actual temperature of any place is, especially over time.
Could someone enlighten me as to the election process the WEF members went through to place them in a position to advise/demand the World bow to their ‘solutions’ to the problems of the World?
It was along the lines of –
“do you own a private jet? OK, you’re in”
Wealth buys influence and power. Why would they give even a second of consideration to submitting that to a vote?
story tip: Hertz ditches 20,000 EVs due to high cost of maintenance and poor demand: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/hertz-sell-about-20000-evs-us-fleet-2024-01-11/
Blame Tesla 😉
Hertz Is Walking Back A Big Bet On EVs. Here’s What’s Really Going On (msn.com)
The WEF needs to lead by example. All WEF members need to give their money and assets to those who are less well off. I could use a couple hundred thousand dollars. That isn’t all that much by their standards, they should easily be able to afford it and I could use the money.
Sure. They give all their money to the less well off then charge £100 for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk. However you slice it, they’ll never be poor.
Restore trust? Since when did a meeting made up of wealthy megalomaniacs earn any trust?
They’ve gone off Qatar for a kneesup then?
Instead of putting taxpayer money into “the old system” for the people’s benefit, the WEF goal is to refunnel public and private money into their own “businesses” for their own profit. It’s not “restoring trust” it’s “installing trusts”.
The first thing the WEF could do to “rebuild trust” is to renounce its diplomatic immunity status in Geneva, Switzerland. A group that is not accountable for anything or to anyone doesn’t inspire trust at all. The same thing is true for the United Nations, or GAVI.
The first thing the WEF could do to “rebuild trust” is to renounce its diplomatic immunity status in Geneva, Switzerland. A group that is not accountable for anything doesn’t inspire trust at all. The same thing is true for the UN, or GAVI.
Would you ever trust a group with green champions like Al Gore and EU Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on its board of trustees?
Never !
And don’t forget the (not)Federal Reserve.
How would you call a centrally controlled economic power structure with multi year plans ?
Those people are not there to save the planet but to save themselves and their imploding economic system (not a freemarket capitalism).
It would seem there is a youngish Republican candidate proposing to abolish all useless bureaucracy in the US at a stroke with a refreshingly simple explanatory statement of the need to do so. Not glib politicizing, but simple explanation of the reasons why and the benefits that accrue …
2024 the year that changes everything … and not before time.
We can TRUST the WEF…. to build an Undemocratic FEUDAL FASCIST World Order.
They PROMISE… Feudal Slavery under a Fascist Government/Corporate Kleptocratic Oligarchy….ALL BASED ON LIES…Fed to the world by a Lying Corporate “Propaganda Press” and Supported by Corrupt (and Evil) Academics and Corrupt Fake Scientists.
It’s fun watching Elon Musk take Pot Shots at the WEF’ers.
Minus 39 c in Regina Saskatchewan Canada, with a wind chill taking it down to minus 50s c. No renewable wind power as they are all shut down because metal doesn’t go well with such cold temp. Only reliable source of heat is my natural gas furnace, Thank God. Electrical grid has reached its maximum with warnings going out, furnaces use electrical fans to force the heated air through buildings. Forget about using EVs which have problems in cold temps. Here’s an idea, hold the next WEFmeeting in Regina during January, might lead to a touch of realism