Reforming the tax system to preserve democracy

Conference-debate organized by IRIS, in partnership with the EU Tax Observatory, Oxfam France and the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), with Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, co-chair of ICRICT, Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-chair of ICRICT, Gabriel Zucman, Director of the European Tax Observatory, commissioner of ICRICT Moderated by Cécile Duflot, Executive Director of Oxfam France. With an introduction by Christophe Ventura, Director of Research at IRIS (introduction).

All over the world, citizens are facing a deterioration in their standard of living, but also in the level of public services - health, education, care facilities for the elderly, questioning of pension schemes, security... While governments exhort citizens to make more efforts, the concentration of wealth at the top of the pyramid has accelerated. Since 2020, the wealthiest 1% have captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth, six times more than the poorest 90% of humanity according to Oxfam. While some multinationals have profited from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine and are posting historic super-profits, many governments are targeting the most vulnerable and the middle classes with increasing austerity plans. This fuels frustration and anger at government, which undermines the credibility of democracy. Everywhere, parties that question individual and public liberties in favor of the hierarchization of citizens and xenophobia are gaining ground in the ballot box. To break this vicious circle, we must give back to the States the means to finance public services capable of meeting the needs of all, and first of all of the most vulnerable, to leave less room for this anti-democratic hostility, through, in particular, the taxation of super-profits and the incomes of the richest.