Davos Man

by Peter S. Goodman

Davos Man had spent decades deploying lobbyists and lawyers toward weakening the hand of the state, eviscerating regulations, and deactivating traditional antitrust concerns. The credulous embrace of the Business Roundtable statement highlighted the magnitude of his success. The billionaires had altered the view of business in the popular imagination, refashioning themselves as a source of vitality and good, in contrast to the supposed incompetence of government and other impediments to progress. The Roundtable statement contained the implicit notion that Davos Man could be trusted to do right by everyone, magnanimously making needed adjustments. Society did not require regulators and rules interfering with business to protect public interests like clean air or fair competition. No back-and-forth with labor unions was necessary to ensure adequate pay. The executives were benevolent masters of their domain, their virtues beyond reproach, so any counterbalancing interest could be dispensed as gratuitous impediments to their dynamism.