Davos Man

by Peter S. Goodman

The inequalities that defined the American economy—the legalized tax evasion, the structural racism, the erosion of labor power, and the growing impossibility of paying bills on typical wages—were realities that had long predated Trump. They would not be fixed by his removal from the White House. The movement that had propelled him to power was the continuation of forces that had been operative in the American sphere for decades. Reagan had begun the push to dismantle government and distribute the savings via tax cuts, turning trickle-down into the central principle of economic policy. Successive administrations representing both parties had denigrated social welfare spending and catered to the shareholder class while tolerating inequality as the by-product of prosperity. Clinton had celebrated the restorative powers of cutting budget deficits, while affirming the logic that innovation required unlimited rewards. He and Obama had centered their economic designs on finance and technology, allowing Davos Man to add zeros to his net worth. They had relegated antitrust law to the history books. George W. Bush had sacrificed government on the altar of the tax-cutting gods, further gutting social programs. Davos Man had not been some accidental beneficiary of this ideological shift. He was its driver, financing campaigns, deploying lobbyists and lawyers who promoted the Cosmic Lie, while demonstrating his supposed benevolence via philanthropy and pledges for stakeholder capitali...