The tycoon’s attack generated many controversies Elon Musk against European political leaders, with strong reactions from the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the French president Emmanuel Macronand the German chancellor Olaf Scholz. But this type of intervention, now in the foreground, should not be surprising if we take into account a reality that has been consolidating for many years: large corporations and their owners have budgets that are larger than those of countries that are world powers. . This makes them, covertly or openly, prominent interlocutors of those who lead the States.
Indeed, giant companies have a value and income that exceeds the budgets and GDP of many developed nations, including Great Britain and France. This is especially observed in the technology sector, where there are companies that achieve the highest values on the planet’s stock markets.
If the budgets of these companies are compared with those of some highly developed states, including England and France, the corporations win.
To this we must add the new investment firms, hedge funds and markets such as dark pools, which trade shares outside of state regulations, which have increased abysmally with artificial intelligence. These capitals, as is known, can avoid paying taxes, for multimillion-dollar sums, even with the complicity of countries that facilitate the transfer of money from tax havens to their coffers (including England, the Netherlands and Ireland)..
In this new scenario there are those who make their claims to the rulers from a largely favorable position of power. Actually, it’s not that new. It has antecedents that some find in the Dutch East India Company, which in the 15th and 16th centuries had omnipotent power (the English and the French also had theirs).
Beyond historical speculations, it is convenient to examine the consequences of a situation in which some actors in the business world move with decidedly political goals. It will be necessary to observe, above all, whether fundamental human rights are respected.
There are many corporations that seek to comply with the Sustainable Development Goalsand the achievements are included in the Sustainability Reports that they publish each year, and that particularly in Western Europe will be mandatory; Even China itself promises to put them into practice.
Among these objectives are improving education, reducing poverty and inequalities, caring for the environment, and gender equality. It is a question of ethics and legitimacy, which strengthens the reputation of brands, which is so difficult to achieve.
As far as political leaders are concerned, rather than complaining about those who manage large networks, they should analyze what they do in the technology business. It takes a lot of money to operate with new technologies and those who spend the most in this area achieve the best results.
It is the decisive factor, that another European leader, Pedro Sanchezknew how to use it very well with successful campaigns, especially in a network of Chinese origin, generating content with a language that young people understand. The European community is also along those lines.
The heart of the matter is the crisis of the democratic model, as the economist warned Stefano Zamagnipresident of the Vatican Academy of Social Sciencesin a seminar Social Ecumenical Forum and maintained that it is not utopian to think about uniting market and democracy. So be it.
*Fernando Flores Maio is a sociologist, journalist, writer and director of the Ecumenical Social Forum
by Fernando Flores Maio
