Did Klaus Schwab write "You will own nothing and be happy" in his 2020 book "COVID-19: The Great Reset"? No, that's not true: The book contains no such quote. Additionally, neither Schwab nor the World Economic Forum, which he founded, advocate for abolishing private ownership of goods and property. The phrase may have originated from a Danish member of parliament who wrote an essay that was reproduced by the WEF titled "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better."
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on February 4, 2024, with the caption (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff):
'The theory of communism can be summed up in one sentence: Abolition of private property' - Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
'You will have nothing and you will be happy' - Klaus Schwab, The Great Reset
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Feb 9 10:20:33 2024 UTC)
The book "COVID-19: The Great Reset" (archived here), written by Schwab and Thierry Malleret, founder of the Monthly Barometer newsletter, was published on July 9, 2020. According to a World Economic Forum press release (archived here), the book assess the effects of the pandemic on the macro, micro and individual levels.
The PDF file of the book (archived here) did not reveal the quote "You will have nothing and be happy." A search within the book for phrases attributed to Schwab, such as "own nothing" and "be happy," using the Ctrl+F (Control Find) function also failed to produce a substantive match:
The expression more likely came from an essay written by Danish Member of Parliament Ida Auken in 2016 that was titled "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better," which was reproduced in an article for the World Economic Forum.
