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Go Home Davos Frets About Elites

ALL TALK JANUARY 23, 2013

Davos Frets About Elites

BY TIMOTHY NOAH

There is no better example of social and economic policy discussion as an idle pastime for the rich than the World Economic Forum at Davos. These guys make the millionaire schmoozers at the Aspen Ideas Festival look like short-order cooks. Last year I made fun of Davos for tiptoeing nervously around the issue of growing income inequality (a New York Times article had argued convincingly, but without any actual examples, that inequality was a hot topic at that year’s meeting). This year Davos isn’t even tiptoeing. Ian Bremmer, who chairs Davos’s Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk, reports in the Huffington Post that the unifying theme this year at Davos is, yes, “the increasing vulnerability of elites.” Keep in mind as you read what follows that Bremmer is not a parodist:

We're seeing leaders of all kinds, in the developed and developing world, in politics as well as business and media, answering to constituents who grow more dissatisfied... and information-rich. Look at the riots in India over the recent rape scandal, the U.S. Congress' abysmal approval ratings, or the phone hacking scandal at News Corp. Corruption, special interests, or a lack of transparency will spell trouble for leaders. The same goes for a widening gap between rich and poor.

Okay, I lied. There is some discussion going on there, apparently, about income inequality. But if I’m reading Bremmer right, Davos sees inequality mainly as a problem bearing down on elites. The blighters simply won’t shut up about living in mud huts (or enduring weak rape laws, a dysfunctional legislature, corporate malfeasance, etc.) while the rest of us hit the slopes. Can’t they see I’m trying to have a civilized conversation on this chairlift line with Jamie Dimon about resilient dynamism?

Honestly, if Davos is going to turn itself into a pity party about the terrible plight of elites, I’d just as soon these plutocrats gave up their political-economy hobby and went back to yachting.

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17 comments

"But if I’m reading Bremer right, Davos sees inequality mainly as a problem bearing down on elites." I see this as a good thing. Presenting inequality as a moral problem is a loser with this crowd. What could conceivable move them, though, is being reminded that "Let them eat cake" has never been a sustainable governing philosophy.

- Fishpeddler

January 23, 2013 at 5:01pm

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Noah, Stiglitz and Krugman don't agree about the consequences of inequality, so why should the dandies who ride in private jets to Davos fret about it. If Krugman is right, all the dandies have to do to make things right is purchase more yachts, luxury cars, and the services of personal trainers and celebrity chefs, and then all will be back to normal and we will all be friends again. Well, except for Phil Michelson.

- rayward

January 23, 2013 at 5:07pm

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LOL. The "elites" have it rough? They are vulnerable? I love it. Meanwhile they are worried about information-rich poor people and women, so forth, finally getting mad?

- Sophia

January 23, 2013 at 6:37pm

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Agree with Fishpeddler. These people need to be reminded of their self-interest in trying to remedy the situation.

- ClumsyMohel

January 23, 2013 at 6:39pm

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Does anyone write a better headline than Tim Noah?

- WandreyCer

January 23, 2013 at 7:07pm

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Reading Bremmer's comment, a certain masturbation reference (the male individual himself rather than the act) comes to mind as even more germane in this piece.

- ironyroad

January 23, 2013 at 9:17pm

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This piece by TN could have been more resonant if he had included a discussion of the backdrop for all of this elite handwringing: that in Switzerland of all places (refuge of the international corporate and money elite, or at least their money), the populace of this direct democracy is readying to vote on a referendum to, in brief, dramatically reduce executive pay, shrink bonuses, and reduce the income gap between the top and the bottom. The ire of the Swiss, however, extends to a far larger definition of `elite', as they tend to see anyone who stands out in talent or aspiration as needing to be cut down to size. So, they don't much differentiate between the (foreign) executive leadership of a multi-national corporation (MNC) and its (foreign) middle-management workforce. The irony, however, is that the Swiss standard of living is enabled by trickle-down from the vast earnings of Swiss and foreign MNCs which headquarter here for the T&T (tax and talent) and employ boatloads of highly-educated and -skilled foreign expats -- to the exclusion of the unqualified Swiss -- whose earnings approximate the top quintile of the Swiss earnings distribution. Having been employed in such a capacity by more than one of these MNCs, and having had to deal with the typically corrupt local administration (always trying to guage one's earnings so that they can extract more money for this and for that) in the autonomously governing communities; and trying to guide an intelligent child through a Swiss school system (international schools are few and far between and generally inadequate for other than a 1-2-year stint) that by design steers 85% of all students to trade occupations... ...I can attest that the Swiss resentment to `elites' ranges well beyond North American conceptions of the term.

- vst

January 24, 2013 at 12:16am

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Ray, you need to get over that Krugman post. Well, at least stop misrepresenting it in these pages.

- Fishpeddler

January 24, 2013 at 9:05am

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Why is it "corrupt" for a local Swiss administration to "gauge" a foreign employee's earnings if that employee is resident in Switzerland and draws his salary there?

- ironyroad

January 24, 2013 at 10:09am

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Irony, Trust me, it's none of their concern. It is of the tax authorities, but not of other public offices. As my first company-paid Swiss tax advisor told me upon our first meeting, it is customary for various Swiss administrative offices to issue invoices (for any of a number of taxes or other costs) to newly resident non-German speaking expats when they first register their residence in the local state and community. These invoices very often have no basis in reality. However, what expats likely don't know at that time is that if they do not respond in writing via registered mail within 30 days to dispute the claim, then they are ultimately bound by law to pay the invoice. Once can take it to Court -- indeed, the process takes one to Court automatically if it is not paid within a couple of months -- but the Court's hands are tied under the law. The law is basically a money-grab mechanism. (And that is just one such mechanism). This law was slightly amended as of the beginning of this year, but not meaningfully.

- vst

January 24, 2013 at 11:55am

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By the way, you don't have to take my word on the "corrupt" label. That was the summary from a local news article after release of the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for Switzerland. It seems that after an "inadequately educated workforce", the next major problem for companies doing business in the country tends to be the capriciousness of administrative offices.

- vst

January 24, 2013 at 12:09pm

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their concern has nothing to do with correcting any imbalance their concern has everything to do with their safety and maintaining THEIR liberty to do what ever the fuck they want to do with their ill gotten gains and keeping the riff raff out of their way

- teoc

January 24, 2013 at 12:09pm

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Thanks, vst, I didn't know that. I lived in Germany for many years, and I don't remember anything like that happening there. I see the capriciousness but I'm still a bit puzzled as to how it's corrupt while at the same time they are following the law (which I understand your comment about the courts to mean). It can be an irritating and/or unfair law, but that doesn't make it corrupt. In Germany, the Administrative Courts are there to deal with that kind of conflict.

- ironyroad

January 24, 2013 at 5:49pm

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Correction: 2010 case of a child of a Brazilian mother killed by the child's Swiss father. The mother and her lawyers repeatedly warned the Vormundschaftsbehoerde of the dangerousness of the father, but they showed an evident bias toward him as a Swiss in not restricting his contact with the child.

- vst

January 25, 2013 at 6:20am

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That's a good point -- I had forgotten about the unusual structure of power in Switzerland, with so much authority invested in the Gemeinde-level admin offices.

- ironyroad

January 25, 2013 at 12:12pm

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"Corruption, special interests, or a lack of transparency will spell trouble for leaders. The same goes for a widening gap between rich and poor." And this is a revelation to him? Must be tough living in that very expensive sock.

- jpell64

January 25, 2013 at 9:53pm

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