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Comment by fwungy | Hacker News Reader

The original phrase was coined by the World Economic Forum. What the critics leave out is that the WEF was saying that people would be happier not owning anything.

>You will own nothing and you will be happy.

Alternatively it could have a darker interpretation: you will be a slave and you will be happy, because that's all you're going to get.

I suppose it depends if you look at the WEF as a benevolent institution looking to benefit humanity or very rich people looking to solidify their own position at any cost.

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> What the critics leave out is that the WEF was saying that people would be happier not owning anything.

Literally every time I have seen the quote brought up in dissenters' milieus, it included the "and you will be happy" part.

Unsurprisingly, because the implicit paternalism makes it almost as repellent as the first part.

More info about the origin of the phrase: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ll_own_nothing_and_be_...

Easily fact-checked:

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-wef-idUSKBN2AP2...

This isn't a related fact check.

It seems like it is, but read it closely. Reuters here is not debunking the phrase was said by a WEF politician, they are debunking that is is a goal of Agenda 30.

Nobody made that claim in the first place.

I'm correcting mischaracterizations made by the parent comment.

The article I linked provides context and paints a different picture; not sure why you consider that to be unrelated.

Your article agrees with the claim the parent made - the WEF said "You will own nothing and be happy".

Yet another „fact-checking“ that can be easily fact-checked to be a lie.

The link to the original article is now 404 from the WEF's site, but you can find it in archive.org. It's notable that the link has "agenda" in its URL.

> What the critics leave out is that the WEF was saying that people would be happier not owning anything.

Given that happiness is often a cultural construct (wildly different things make people happy dependent on the cultural context), and that many WEF members are cultural influencers the critics response is that the current people will not really be happy, but the WEF will arrange the culture so that future people are. Any outside group conspiring to change your culture is a normal cause for alarm.

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