To some extent, I can understand this argument. Some other people realised very well what they were pushing for: we should have more competition between countries so that countries will make an effort to be more ‘efficient’ and not tax too much.

I was very young but still I am part of the many people who maybe did not realise at the time that this would lead us to a very unfair system. I voted yes in the Maastricht treaty referendum in 1992. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. This has to be changed.īecome part of our Community of Thought Leaders This is a very sophisticated international legal system, in particular in Europe, which has made it possible that you accumulate wealth by, in effect, using the public infrastructure of a country-the public education system and everything-and then you can go somewhere else and nothing has been planned so that we can follow you.

Otherwise, we have created a very dangerous system, where a very large part of the population feel that they are not gaining from globalisation-they are not gaining in particular from European integration-and that people at the top, large corporations or people with high wealth and high income, get a better deal because the system in a way was organised so that they can just click on a button and transfer their wealth to another jurisdiction and nobody can follow them. It has to come with some common tax system, so that the most mobile and most powerful economic actors have to contribute to the common good-at least as much a proportion of their wealth and of their income as the middle class and the lower socio-economic groups.

The circulation of investment is, of course, not bad in itself but it has to come with an automatic transmission of information about who owns what and where. It was organised via particular international treaties and we have to rewrite these treaties. Free capital flow is not something that came from the sky-it was created by us. Thomas Piketty: We have to rethink the way we organise globalisation.

Capital book thomas piketty