A disturbing movement to reform capitalism is gaining traction by those using the coronavirus tragedy to call for “The Great Reset”.
These are not the ramblings of a few disgruntled teenagers or a wacky sociology professor from inner-city Sydney.
The body pushing The Great Reset happens to be the World Economic Forum and its charismatic German leader Klaus Schwab who is calling for a return to Marxist principles, claiming that capitalism has empirically failed.
Professor Schwab has just released a book titled The Great Reset and has dedicated a large portion of the official WEF website to such articles as “Does capitalism need some Marxism to survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution?”.
It is truly a terrifying notion that a man as educated and powerful as Schwab would use his supposedly independent economic organisation to push for a return of the deadliest social experiments of the 20th century.
And how does he justify putting an end to capitalism?
“There is an urgent need for global stakeholders to cooperate in simultaneously managing the direct consequences of the COVID-19 crisis,” Schwab says
“To improve the state of the world, the World Economic Forum is starting The Great Reset initiative.
“Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being.”
A new social contract. Decided by who? Well Schwab himself, of course.
Schwab promises a new world. A better world. A fairer world.
You see Mao and Stalin, they were not true Marxists. They didn’t have the best intentions. A Utopia is indeed possible.
And what evidence does Schwab present to support his new world order?
Well, let’s quote Schwab’s organisation in full so that we can fully understand his point of view.
“Capitalism as we know it needs to be reformed,” the WEF writes.
“The growing discontent at the ideology that has created so much wealth and progress on the one hand, and yet so much inequality and instability on the other hand, is causing increasingly frequent social disruptions across the world.
“The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare most of these dysfunctions, ranging from uneven access to healthcare, education, economic opportunities, and social progress, to growing inequality among and within nations and racial and ethnic groups. At the centre of these multiple crises lies the tension between privilege and meritocracy.”
There’s a lot to unpack in the above but the general theme relates to the existence of inequality being evidence capitalism has failed.
It is of course true to an extent that not all systems create inequality. But this is actually a case for capitalism.
Even the most junior economist will study the four primary economic systems and even the most ideologically possessed of those students will come across the system favoured by the USSR, North Korea and Maoist’s China.
The Command Economist System.
A system which eliminates inequality because citizens all live equally in tragedy.
Those living in Ukraine discovered this in the early 1930s when the Holodomor – or The great Famine – struck.
Somewhere between 3 million and 12 million people starved to death after the Soviets convinced people to turn on their village’s farmers.
Marxist logic dictates that if someone profits from a sale, they have robbed you.
If there is inequality, a crime has been committed.
That notion has prompted much horror over the years and left many people equal in poverty.
Capitalism indeed creates inequality, but it is also the only system known to man which also creates equality.
This is because wealth creation is not a zero-sum game. There is not a finite amount of money or wealth.
Money can be created, jobs can be created and people can be pulled out of tragedy and despair by capitalism itself.
In the last few decades, according to our friends at the World Economic Forum, more than 1.1 billion people have been pulled out of extreme poverty.
The world was on track to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030 – a timeline which will undoubtedly be side-tracked by COVID-19 but that is hardly the fault of our economic system.
The evidence for capitalism in the form of humanity’s rapidly improving way of life is enormous.
But the Marxist principles Schwab endorses are stained with blood.
Or as Karl Marx would say: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”.
