“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”. That aphorism which, in every context except the lives of voluntarily enclosed monks and nuns belonging to contemplative religious orders, invites scepticism originated in a video published in 2016 by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The video was a summary of an essay written by Ida Auken, a Danish politician, originally entitled “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.”
The essay was later given a more reassuring title and the WEF thought it politic to issue a “clarification” that it has no stated goal to have individuals “own nothing and be happy”, insisting that its Agenda 2030 framework includes individual ownership of private property. For the avoidance of doubt, it should be acknowledged that Davos Man has no hair-shirt inclinations, inhabiting a milieu of champagne-fuelled luxury in which it is good manners to avoid any overt hint of compassion for those so deprived as to own only one private jet.
