The Davos Non-Paradox

Branko Milanovic is good on the apparent paradox of Davos – that plutocrats who preside over massive inequality “speak the language of equality, respect, participation, and transparency”: They are loath to pay a living wage, but they will fund a philharmonic orchestra. They will ban unions, but they will organize a workshop on transparency in government. Doug McWilliams, a man not hitherto noted as a class warrior, calls it “virtue signalling paid for by money in effect stolen from shareholders.” This juxtaposition deserves closer inspection. For one thing, it is a relatively new phenomenon. Thatcherites never felt the need to appear virtuous, and Thatcher herself was contemptuous of those who “drool and drivel they care.”