The tax on super-profits is “a really good idea” on condition of “not stopping there”, estimates Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize in Economics 2019, invited Friday, September 2 on France Inter. According to her, “we must seize all opportunities to improve the fairness of our tax system, even if it is only part of the solution”. She sees it as a way to open the debate “on the fact that corporate profits are not taxed fairly today”, in France, but also abroad, and in particular in the United States. But Esther Duflo calls for the diagnosis not to be mistaken, considering that the taxation of super-profits and the banning of private jets are only “the tip of the iceberg”. In other words, it will not be enough to fight in depth against global poverty and climate change. Esther Duflo: “The taxation of super-profits and private jets is the tip of the iceberg. We have to ask ourselves the question of the distribution of profits, of the resources that exist. It’s a good idea, but we must not stop there” #le7930Inter pic.twitter.com/6y8sDyrLcy — France Inter (@franceinter) September 2, 2022 She recalls that the health situation coupled with the effects of climate change and the war in Ukraine “precipitate “, “accelerate” poverty. “We are at the confluence of a series of factors which produce a 13% increase in food prices over the year, on a global scale”, she explains. The consequences on people’s lives are “immediate”, adds the economist. “We went from 130 million to 345 million people in extreme nutritional fragility, the stage just before famine.” Esther Duflo, Nobel Prize in Economics at franceinfo Esther Duflo points to the “tremendous responsibility” of rich countries in climate change and “inside rich countries”, the behavior of “those who are the richest”. “The richer we are, the more we consume, the more we consume, the more emissions it produces. The emissions produced in China are produced to allow our own consumption”, she explains. According to the economist, “progress on climate change can only pass through strong political action and a better distribution of income”. The Nobel Prize in economics pleads for “drastic sobriety”, considering that “individual behavior”, the fact of “sorting your trash cans and turning off the lights”, are both “indispensable and completely insufficient”. She hopes that the “dramatic” climatic situation in France this summer will have at least had the “positive effect” of “making us realize that climate change is not just in the future, it is not It’s not just the others. If it was 35-40 degrees in France, it was 50 degrees in India in May,” insists Esther Duflo. “We must ask ourselves more fundamentally the question of the distribution of benefits, of the resources that exist and that can only go through an overhaul of the taxation system at all levels”, summarizes the economist. Esther Duflo thus calls for “the adequate distribution of wealth, income, vis-à-vis the rest of the world”. Esther Duflo: “We need drastic sobriety: individual changes are both essential and completely insufficient. Climate progress can only happen through strong political action, and through a better distribution of income” #le7930Inter pic.twitter.com /C6vJFjhQ1N — France Inter (@franceinter) September 2, 2022