The “Great Reset”

LIKE the poor… the world improvers will always be with us.

The latest batch is yelling for a “Great Reset.”

The prevailing economic, political and social institutions are inadequate to needs, they insist.

Capitalism in its current form is the barbarous relic, a grotesque antique. Tinkering, adjusting, tweaking the thing is hopeless.

It wrecks the climate. It opens vast gulfs of inequality. It alienates.

Heave it into the fire, they say.

A beautiful new capitalism will rise in its place, the phoenix up from the ashes — a “greener, smarter, and fairer” capitalism.

World improver extraordinaire Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Founder:

Anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun, and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s. But, while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable.

To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism…

Left unaddressed, these crises, together with COVID-19, will deepen and leave the world even less sustainable, less equal, and more fragile. Incremental measures and ad hoc fixes will not suffice to prevent this scenario. We must build entirely new foundations for our economic and social systems.

The pandemic has already shoved the world out of its customary grooves, its habitual ruts.

We must keep shoving, says this one-worlder — alert to the unique opportunity before him.

It is time to push the Great Reset.

Here again is Schwab… globalist dreams bouncing in his skull, technocratic stars twinkling in his eyes:

The level of cooperation and ambition this implies is unprecedented. But it is not some impossible dream. In fact, one silver lining of the pandemic is that it has shown how quickly we can make radical changes to our lifestyles. Almost instantly, the crisis forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office.

Likewise, populations have overwhelmingly shown a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of health-care and other essential workers and vulnerable populations, such as the elderly. And many companies have stepped up to support their workers, customers, and local communities, in a shift toward the kind of stakeholder capitalism to which they had previously paid lip service.

Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need.

Perhaps we do not wish to make more “radical changes to our lifestyles.” We might prefer our old lifestyle instead.

And perhaps a Great Reset does not interest us.

Does the will to build a better society exist, as Mr. Schwab states? It does exist, yes. But how to build it?

He and his mates would draft the blueprints… boss the work crews… supervise the construction.

Orders come from up top:

“That will require stronger and more effective governments,” this fellow concedes freely and openly.

Thus he turns Jefferson upon his head — “that government is best which governs least.”

We are with Jefferson.

As we are with Jefferson, we are against world improvers, sob mongers, tear-squeezers, meddlers… and humanitarians with guillotines.

They are forever scratching what the great individualist Albert Jay Nock labelled the “monstrous itch for changing people.”

We would leave people be, in peace… taking them as we find them.

The only action a man can take to improve the world, Nock argued, is to present it with one improved unit.

The Klaus Schwabs of this world would present it with 7.8 billion improved units.

We are with Nock — as we are with Mencken:

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it.”

Regards,

Brian Maher
Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning