Elites Who Want to Fix the World’s Problems Should Start By Looking in the Mirror

by FluteHolder Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:47 am

http://time.com/collection-post/5504505/message-to-elites/

Elites Who Want to Fix the World’s Problems Should Start By Looking in the Mirror

Anand Giridharadas

Jan. 16, 2019

If elites want to fix the world’s problems, they can start by looking in the mirror

Dear Davos delegates,
Once again, you plutocrats are gathering above the rest of us, convinced you hold the key to solving problems you’ve caused. You meet to celebrate your plutocrat religion, Win-win-ism, which teaches that what’s best for the winners of our age is best for all. But we don’t believe you anymore. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg used to be a synonym for optimism. Now he’s a catastrophic joke—a boy-man who pledged to create community while destroying democracy, who said he’d end all disease even as his company became a plague. He may merely be an exaggeration of many of you.

You enabled the nationalism that threatens our societies. You stiffed so many of us. You fought for rules that let you steal the future from our children. You pushed for monopolies and “double Dutch with an Irish sandwich” tax maneuvers and austerity and deregulation. People got angry, and some of them voted for hell. And who benefited? You again. Because instead of following their anger up to the summit where you gather, the enraged were goaded, sometimes by your fellow plutocrats, into punching downward and turning on the most vulnerable.
Hearing this, you may be tempted to do what your type loves to do: solutionizeify. But the hunt for answers to the present mess is not yours to lead. Your moral duty now is to refrain from thwarting those who are working to bury this gilded age and usher in vital reforms. It will be tough on you, though you can afford it: higher taxes on the very rich; stronger protections for workers; new deals, green and otherwise; vigorous antitrust and financial regulation. As the reformers craft societies in which all can flourish, your task is simple: stay out of their way.
Giridharadas is author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World

by confuzzled dude Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:14 pm

"Elites," is a recent favourite of populist candidates. On the right, Donald Trump used it, Rob Ford used it, Brexit leader Nigel Farage used it, and on the left, Bernie Sanders used it. Now Kellie Leitch, the alleged frontrunner for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, seems to use it more than almost any other word. When two prominent Conservatives withdrew their endorsements of her citing their concerns about her controversial immigration policies, she wrote them off as "party elites."

While the politicians using the term can throw these definitions around, ultimately the term is used so often because it can have so many definitions and can mean whatever the voter wants it to mean.

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/8ge3ap/who-exactly-are-the-elites-rich-populist-politicians-are-complaining-about

Seriously, I didn't get who Mr. Giridharadas was referring to; rich folks? rich countries?

by FluteHolder Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:39 pm

I just came across him just last week and saw his interview in bloomberg and I guess he is against corporate wrong doers (Zuckerburg (FB) and Google and others who are trying to become or already monopoly and might influence the government) and also the rich corporations which lobby the governments in their favor for tax and other benefits. Also look for Tim Wu another economist who is warning/cautioning about monopolies...
https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/timothy-wu

by FluteHolder Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:49 pm

by Martine22 Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:39 am

Thanks

by Martine22 Mon Jan 21, 2019 12:39 am

excellent

by Sponsored content

Elites Who Want to Fix the World’s Problems Should Start By Looking in the Mirror