The Siren Song of ‘Stakeholder Capitalism’

The thing I love most about World Economic Forum’s founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab is that the man can sing the My Little Pony intro song and his voice will make it sound like the most evil melody on earth.

This is the man who views Covid as a great opportunity, who is shilling for a Great Reset and who is going to fight alongside Captain Planet in order to save Earth from evil people like you, who have no idea how to do capitalism properly.

The reason you don't do capitalism properly is that you follow the way of Milton Friedman. You advocate for shareholder capitalism. Which is to say exactly what most people think when they hear the concept of capitalism. The shareholders and the board of directors elect the CEO who has control over the managerial class. The employees then create a product that the customer buys. And the main purpose of the entire thing is to create as much profit as possible for the shareholder.

Now, Klaus Schwab would tell you that this is not only evil but is also harming society with greed and lack of consideration for Mother Gaya.

Meanwhile, in the real world, everyone benefits.

First off, the customer, the CEO, the shareholder, and the employee are not separate groups. An employee can also happen to be a shareholder and a customer at the same time. People with money are encouraged to invest in shares and thus increase their wealth if the company profits. The shareholder who makes money is not providing just for himself but for his family as well and can then use said money to open a business or send his kid to college.

Putting an emphasis on profits means that the company is pressured to find ways to sell the product cheaper and be more efficient in creating the product. But not only that, if the company becomes profitable it will try to expand, creating stability for the people working there as well as new jobs which also open up managerial positions.

Corporations are also incentivised to maintain workers by paying them more. Companies don't want a veteran employee of 10 years that knows his way around the office to leave and be replaced by a brand new employee that requires training before he can operate at a somewhat acceptable level. Paying your employees more, in turn, makes them care about their job and take it more seriously than those who are paid a measly sum.

Finally, the shareholders can donate to various charities that they see fit. Some may donate to help the environment, others to education, some to the homeless. The money gets spread around multiple areas of importance that each individual shareholder considers. And studies do show that the more wealth people have the more likely they are to donate.

As for the environment, if you look at Texas, a state that is right-wing and doesn't have as many regulations as California, you will notice that most companies are going green without the requirement of government oversight.

Now, let's look at Klaus Schwab’s vision of "stakeholder capitalism".

In stakeholder capitalism, corporations need to stop focusing on profits and instead focus on "ESG scores". These scores measure things like "diversity, caring about the planet, etc." This means that the company, not focusing on profit, has no more reason to offer a cheaper product or to be efficient. Products will become fewer, worse, and more expensive.

Under "stakeholder capitalism" the corporation no longer is a for-profit entity but a political actor designed to push a political agenda. And the state is no longer a referee in a free market, but is an active player - as Klaus Schwab says, the government needs to follow ESG scores as well.

The CEO who is properly WEF-minded will now receive money from the government in the form of bailouts, stimy checks, funny money through printing, or tax deductions. The CEO then needs to redirect the money, but since he has very little interest in making profits or caring about the shareholders, he can use a large chunk of the money to donate to other causes or simply buy off other properties.

Then, the CEO will donate money to various politicians, which will owe the CEO various favours back. Is there a pandemic? Well, it just so happens that your business is essential, while your competitors need to be locked up in their homes to protect their evil employees from their paychecks. Was there a pandemic? Oh my god! You poor thing you; here, have some bailout money sponsored by the taxpayer! Want some tax cuts to go with that?

Other ways the CEO can donate money is towards influencers, NGOs, and activists. Whatever is popular in the news during that time, #fightasianhate, #BLM, #SaveMotherGaya, or whatever, will get the CEO to pump money to a select group of activists which will then convince people that his company is doing right by society. 

In this system, the donations are no longer spread across society, meaning that rich and well-connected activists will get the lion share. Meanwhile, orphans, the homeless, and other needy will be completely ignored simply because they don't have enough power to matter. 

With this steady stream of income, these activists function not only to pressure the public to vote for the politicians that want to maintain "stakeholder capitalism" but also to suppress the opposing influencers that might advocate for a return to the previous system and to ask for "far-right concepts" such as less government intervention.

Stakeholder capitalism favours a small group of elite CEOs, politicians, and activists to the detriment of everyone else. By advocating for the government to play favourites, the big corporations can use the favours they buy from politicians to completely destroy their upstarting competition.

This is why Covid is "a great opportunity". Because it destroyed the mom and pops shops. This is why BLM’s “mostly peaceful” protests were encouraged but Trump rallies were “superspreaders”. Because the protests ruined the lives of independent business owners who now have nowhere to shop but Amazon. This is why Criminals are released on the streets on a daily basis in the US but cops get defunded.

Good luck getting a loan from a bank to start a business in an area where there is violent gang activity. Good luck making a profit when you have to pay protection money to whatever gang happens to own your neighbourhood.

This is why California’s homelessness is skyrocketing and politicians do little to even talk about it. Try opening a restaurant and see how many clients you will have if there are needles everywhere on the sidewalk. The little guy is not supposed to have a business. He is supposed to "survive", either on government handouts or by working at a larger corporation.

And this is what stakeholder capitalism is and why, despite advocating for social and climate justice, it does the exact opposite.

In one of his speeches, Milton Friedman explained that the biggest social injustice can be found in a controlled system. It's difficult to find more social injustice than inside a prison, or in a socialist state with a controlled economy.

As such, stakeholder capitalism is not a new ideology. It's simply a rebranded one. If you read about the economy under fascism and what it’s supposed to accomplish, you will see that it has a very similar goal. Under fascism, the company is nominally private, but everything about it is decided by the government. The role of the company is to become a political entity and to work hand in hand with the government in order to spread the same ideology and keep the existing people in power.

Klaus Schwab and his accomplices are creating a modern form of fascism, only this time the marketing is not black and brown but red and green.

A Romanian persecuted for trying to put smiles on people's faces. Took over This Week in Stupid (TWIS) video series.

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