Conversation in French with subtitles available in English, Dutch and French.

Thomas Piketty (1971) is a French economist. He is associate chair at the Paris School of Economics and director of research at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. He came to international attention in 2013 with the publication of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. His latest book Capital and Ideology (2020) was published by De Geus.

“The carbon tax in France had focused on emissions from people driving to work, and not on those flying to Rome for the weekend. They were exempt from paying a tax on airplane fuel. When people in France realised that the money from the carbon tax was being used to finance the abolition of the wealth tax for the top 1%, they felt that they had been taken for fools. That got rid of the idea of a carbon tax in France for quite a while.”“The carbon tax in France had focused on emissions from people driving to work, and not on those flying to Rome for the weekend. They were exempt from paying a tax on airplane fuel. When people in France realised that the money from the carbon tax was being used to finance the abolition of the wealth tax for the top 1%, they felt that they had been taken for fools. That got rid of the idea of a carbon tax in France for quite a while.”

“Young generations need to take action. I have seen how young people of all backgrounds have been protesting against racism, against police brutality, in Europe and in the United States. I think it is a very positive sign, especially to get through a period in which we refuse to recognize racial stigmatism and our colonial past.”