STREET DOGS: Can you talk about equality whilst perpetuating inequality?
As economist Branko Milanovic points out, the plutocrats at Davos who preside over massive inequality and "speak the language of equality, respect, participation, and transparency … are loath to pay a living wage, but will fund a philharmonic orchestra, will ban unions, but organise a workshop on transparency in government". Doug McWilliams 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. For another, the case for capitalism does not rest at all upon the character of individual capitalists. Insofar as capitalism is a good thing, it is because competition forces up wages and working conditions and compels capitalists to offer consumers good deals. This is an emergent process, independent of the virtue or not of capitalists. Why, then, the PC talk? Why not just get on with business? The answer might lie in a version of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. On...
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