Davos Debate

February 2, 2023

00:00:00

Davos Debate

Be it resolved, Davos is back and more relevant than ever

It’s the annual event that no major businessman or policy-maker dares to miss. Among the famous attendees of the most recent World Economic Forum in Davos were the CEO’s of Amazon, BlackRock, Pfizer, JPMorgan Chase, the head of the FBI, publisher of the New York Times, and heads of states from all corners of the earth. This exclusive get together of the world’s elite has a noble mission statement: to improve the state of the world through public-private participation.

Critics of the forum, however, argue that the annual event has become a rich person’s playground where out of touch corporate elites meet in private to make important decisions about global policy without scrutiny or consultation. While chief executives meet under the noble pretense of solving poverty and climate change, most attendees use the forum to further their business interests and make themselves richer. Davos’ supporters argue that the annual forum is more important now than ever before. From climate change to food and energy inflation, to geopolitical instability, the global crises we face require collective action through cooperation and interdependence. Relationships and collaborations forged in Davos have and continue to bring about real world solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Davos might be elite, its supporters concede, but its also effective in working towards global prosperity and peace.

“The World Economic Forum is simply a vehicle that brings together people to learn from each other and to collaborate, and sometimes really good things come from that”

-DON TAPSCOTT

“Davos is a business conference that has been brilliantly marketed by its founders as a way to virtue signal by the participants”

-PETER S GOODMAN