{"id":783,"date":"2023-02-28T13:48:32","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T13:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facts2reason.com\/?p=783"},"modified":"2023-12-09T21:48:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T21:48:47","slug":"stakeholder-capitalism-and-the-great-reset-promises-and-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facts2reason.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/28\/stakeholder-capitalism-and-the-great-reset-promises-and-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Reset – Promises and Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"<\/p>\n

For years the Great Reset<\/strong> has been promoted by the World Economic Forum (WEF<\/a><\/span>). The WEF proclaims<\/a><\/span> it to be the solution <\/strong>for the, in its own words \u201cfragility and societally negative outcomes of contemporary capitalist economies.\u201d <\/strong>It claims that COVID highlighted the \u201cmany vulnerabilities \u2013 within businesses, supply chains, economies, health systems and political institutions \u2013 that will need to be addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The WEF further claims \u201cbroken incentives and information flows\u201d to be \u201cat the heart of our current model of capitalism\u201d. The WEF means by that that today \u201cthe costs of environmental and social damage<\/strong>\u201d are (not) internalized\u201d. Investors do not \u201cintegrate \u2026 environmental, social and governance (ESG) information into financial analysis and valuation models\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thus, in their mind after COVID \u201can inclusive and green recovery<\/strong> is vital\u201d. \u00a0In other words: their Great Reset is absolutely needed.<\/p>\n

Already today the free-market economy is very much regulated by the governments to meet the broader needs of the society. There are laws that define what a company is allowed to release into the environment. Financial reporting follows detailed regulations. Construction of a new plant has to go through a complicated approval process. Employees have rights they can claim in front of a judge and so on.<\/p>\n

The WEF wants, however, to go far beyond that. It wants to replace the free market economy with a system that features not owners, producers and consumers as the major drivers <\/strong>but the \u201cstakeholders\u201d<\/strong> of any economic activity. A stakeholder is an “individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organization.” (ISO 26000<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n

In this blog and the following I will show how this idea has affected us over the last few years and explore where it ultimately will lead our societies.<\/p>\n

The stakeholder idea and its dark underbelly<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

50 years ago, Klaus Schwab the founder of the WEF introduced the idea of stakeholder capitalism<\/span><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The claim was that a business needs to look out not only for the shareholders but to take care of the interests of all stakeholders to be sustainable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Certainly, any manager or owner with the longer-term interests of the business in mind will agree that disgruntled or sick employees, unhappy neighbours, a hostile community, distrustful local officials will influence the business in a rather negative way. And without doubt they will pay attention to the fact that the social and environmental impact of economic activities \u00a0has been gaining more and more\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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public attention<\/strong>. The UN\u2019s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has given targets and a structure to this extended responsibility requested from the companies.<\/p>\n

Accordingly the stakeholder idea found open doors in businesses as well as in universities and business schools. To take care of our environment has been implanted in our western minds over the last decades. Soon, related frameworks like the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG<\/a><\/span>) criteria were developed and launched globally.<\/p>\n

However, the stakeholder approach has a very dark underbelly which, however, seems to be a constituting aspect of the Great Reset:<\/p>\n