Tax Evasion Gets Standing Ovation at Davos

In January 2019, fifteen hundred private jets flew into Davos so the world's richest people could hear Sir David Attenborough talk about climate change. Nobody seemed to notice the problem with that.

Dutch historian Rutger Bregman attended the World Economic Forum for the first time that year. The annual gathering brings together political leaders, CEOs, and billionaires to discuss global issues. He watched them spend days talking about participation, justice, equality, and transparency. Nobody wanted to discuss the actual problem: rich people don't pay taxes.

Bregman wasn't some random activist crashing the party. At thirty years old, he'd already written a New York Times bestselling book called "Utopia for Realists" that had been translated into forty-six languages. His TED Talk on poverty was selected as one of the top ten talks of 2017. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs read his work. That's why Davos invited him. They thought he was one of them.

He wasn't.

Bregman said it felt like attending a firefighters conference where nobody's allowed to mention water. Out of all the panels at Davos, only one discussed tax avoidance. Bregman was one of fifteen people on that panel. Everyone else talked about everything except taxes.

The numbers told a different story than the one being discussed in Switzerland. An Oxfam report released at Davos that week revealed that twenty-six billionaires held the same wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people combined. Half the planet's population owned as much as two dozen rich men.

Ten years earlier, the World Economic Forum asked how industry could prevent social backlash. The answer was simple. Stop pretending philanthropy matters. Start talking about taxes.

Billionaire Michael Dell spoke at Davos two days before Bregman's panel. Dell had just gotten twelve billion dollars richer over the previous five years. His net worth sat around twenty-eight billion dollars. He asked the room to name one country where a 70% tax rate ever worked. The audience laughed. Dell clearly thought nobody could answer.

Bregman had an answer. The United States. During the 1950s under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, the top tax rate hit 91%. The estate tax was 77%. The economy boomed anyway. The middle class grew. America built highways and funded scientific breakthroughs that put people on the moon.

This isn't some radical idea. It already happened in modern history.

Bregman called it what it was: rich people fly private jets to Switzerland to talk about solving problems while refusing to fund the solutions. They want applause without writing checks. They want credit for caring without accepting responsibility.

The World Economic Forum lets billionaires feel good about caring while they protect the system that made them rich. They acknowledge climate change exists while burning massive amounts of jet fuel to get there. They discuss inequality in expensive hotels while lobbying against higher taxes back home. The hypocrisy runs deep.

Philanthropy lets rich people decide which problems get solved and how. Taxes let democratically elected governments decide based on public need. That's the real difference. Rich people hate losing that control over where money goes.

Private foundations can't replace public funding. Charity depends on rich people's moods and interests. Schools, hospitals, roads, and social programs need reliable, consistent money. Philanthropy doesn't provide that stability.

The 1950s proved high taxes work perfectly well alongside economic growth. America's economy expanded dramatically. The wealthy stayed wealthy. Workers earned better wages and built stable lives. Infrastructure projects connected the country. Science and innovation advanced rapidly.

Today's billionaires pretend taxes kill economies while calling philanthropy heroic leadership. It's propaganda designed to protect their fortunes while making them look generous and socially conscious. Bregman rejected all of it as manipulative nonsense.

His bluntness made him famous and unwelcome. "They weren't very happy with me," Bregman said afterward. He told an interviewer that Davos faced a dilemma. If they invited him back, he'd just give the same speech again. If they didn't invite him back, that would prove his point about who really controls the conversation.

Fox News invited him on Tucker Carlson's show a month later. Bregman told Carlson he was "a millionaire paid by billionaires" taking dirty money from the Koch brothers. Carlson exploded. "Go fuck yourself, you tiny brain. You're a moron," he said. Fox News refused to air the interview. Someone leaked the footage anyway. It went viral with over four million views.

Davos hosts these conferences every year. Private jets keep landing on the mountaintop. Billionaires keep announcing new charitable initiatives that address symptoms but ignore root causes. Nothing fundamental changes because the people with power built this system to benefit themselves. They profit from its inequities. They won't dismantle what serves them unless someone forces them to pay what they actually owe. That's not going to happen in an oligarch regime.

This year, the conference is already underway in Davos, Switzerland. Donald Trump is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

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