Esther Duflo

Worldwide, rich people have all sorts of perfectly legal maneuvers to avoid paying the same taxes as everybody else.

A tax on the wealth of the 3,000 richest people in the world of about 3% a year would raise $400 billion.

a slight increase in the minimum tax on multinational corporations from 15 to 21 percent would raise $300 billion.

I'm not dreaming, because the tax on international corporations, it exists already.

Twenty years ago, it would have seemed crazy to think that we could have an agreement worldwide to have such a tax.

And yet, in 2021, 120 countries signed a treaty, and it's already implemented by 40 countries.

And what is nice about it is that it does not require every single country to participate.

If the US, for example, doesn't participate, the way the rules are made, France and Germany, for example, can tax the US companies on their sales in France or Germany to make sure that, overall, they pay 15 percent on their profits.

We could do just the same for the billionaires.

France and Germany could send them a tax bill, say, to Jeff Bezos,

In the unlikely event that Jeff Bezos doesn't pay his taxes, they could start levying money on Amazon's tax in France.

So this is feasible.

This is already in the conversation.

Brazil put it on the map during their presidency of the G20.

It made it to the final declaration with support from many countries, including France, for example, and Spain, and with support from some of the Brazilian richest billionaires.

Thank you.

Now,

It has also a lot of support.

70% of Americans and 80% of Europeans are in support of a tax on the wealthiest people to help the poorest people cope with climate change.

But some people are a little worried that what would we do with the money if we managed to raise it?