The Great Reset (World Economic Forum)
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The Great Reset was the theme of the 51st annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) scheduled for summer 2021.[1][2] According to WEF, the Great Reset was "a commitment to jointly and urgently build the foundations of our economic and social system for a more fair, sustainable and resilient future" in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Background
The World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) was founded in 1971 as a nonprofit foundation. WEF aims, according to its website, to be "the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation" that "strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance."[3] According to WEF, the organization chooses to hold meetings instead of conferences "to give each participant as much context and opportunity for engagement as possible over the long term. We also aim to ensure the impact of our efforts, with each meeting delivering clear outcomes and action points."[4]
WEF vision for the Great Reset meeting
According to WEF, the Great Reset was "a commitment to jointly and urgently build the foundations of our economic and social system for a more fair, sustainable and resilient future" that required "a new social contract centred on human dignity, social justice and where societal progress does not fall behind economic development."[1] WEF argued that COVID-19 exposed contradictions and inadequacies across multiple systems and that the Great Reset was a solution.[5]
The Great Reset aimed to "offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons" to "build a new social contract that honours [sic] the dignity of every human being."[5]
Agenda
WEF founder Klaus Schwab argued the Great Reset agenda would promote stakeholder capitalism using the following three main components:[6]
- Steering markets toward fairer outcomes: This part of The Great Reset aimed to encourage governments to change wealth taxes, withdraw fossil-fuel subsidies, and adopt rules governing intellectual property, trade, and competition to promote a stakeholder economy.[6]
- Ensuring that investments advance shared goals: This part of the Great Reset aimed to encourage governments and private entities to spend recovery funds on goals like equality and sustainability. Schwab argued, "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."[6]
- Harnessing the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good: Schwab argued that the cooperation among companies, universities, and others to respond to COVID-19 should continue to address other health and social challenges.[6]
Commentary
Support for The Great Reset
According to an article commissioned by SOMPO Holdings, a Japanese insurance company, COVID-19 revealed a need for economic change. The article said, "We need a new capitalism that increases consumer demand for goods and services that contribute to the SDGs, and that rewards companies meeting that 'good demand' with economic returns. In addition, capital markets should factor in forecasts for long-term profits generated by corporate actions in line with ESG, even if those actions do not deliver short-term returns."[7]
Heather Johnson, vice president for sustainability and corporate responsibility at Ericsson, wrote that the Great Reset provided an opportunity to ensure companies took "a holistic view of their role" and that it was "much clearer that the role of a company to simply be profitable and serve stakeholders has evolved; there’s now an expectation that companies should make a positive impact in society."[8]
Opposition to The Great Reset
Professor C Raja Mohan summarized critiques of the Great Reset in the following way: "The right sees the WEF arguments about restructuring the global economy as a dangerous attempt to impose 'socialism’ and dismantle the traditional society, or what remains of it. The left scoffs at the Davos Man’s talk on the crisis of capitalism. It points to the complicity of the Davos forum in promoting policies that have brought the world to the current impasse and question its capacity to produce solutions."[9]
The Great Reset "turned into a viral conspiracy theory purporting to expose something no one ever attempted to hide, most of which is not really happening anyway, some of which actually should," according to The Intercept senior correspondent Naomi Klein.[10] Klein added, "like the WEF’s earlier big themes, the Great Reset is not a serious effort to actually solve the crises it describes. On the contrary, it is an attempt to create a plausible impression that the huge winners in this system are on the verge of voluntarily setting greed aside to get serious about solving the raging crises that are radically destabilizing our world."[10]
Broadcaster Tucker Carlson wrote an op-ed for Fox News criticizing ideas WEF founder Klaus Schwab published about the Great Reset before the conference in the following way: "What changes is Schwab talking about? We don't know. What we're certain of is that you're going to pay for them and the people in charge will benefit from them."[11]
Recent news
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 World Economic Forum, "The Great Reset: A Unique Twin Summit to Begin 2021," June 3, 2020
- ↑ World Economic Forum, "Annual Meeting 2021 in Davos Rescheduled," August 27, 2020
- ↑ World Economic Forum, "Our Mission," accessed February 4, 2021
- ↑ World Economic Forum, "How do we do our work?" accessed February 4, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 World Economic Forum, "The Great Reset, Overview," accessed February 2, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 World Economic Forum, "Now is the time for a 'great reset'," June 3, 2020
- ↑ TIME, "Redesign Capitalism to Incorporate Social Value," October 22, 2020
- ↑ Ericsson, "The Great Reset: the power of collaboration," January 22, 2021
- ↑ The Indian Express, "Explained Ideas: What is The Great Reset, and why is it controversial?" January 30, 2021
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Intercept, "The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie," December 8, 2020
- ↑ Fox News, "Tucker Carlson: The elites want COVID-19 lockdowns to usher in a 'Great Reset' and that should terrify you," November 16, 2020
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