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Economist Esther Duflo says it’s time to think seriously about getting billionaires to contribute

Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo brings her data-driven precision to the climate crisis — and the numbers are damning. While world leaders haggle over finances at endless summits, rising temperatures will kill millions in the poorest countries by the end of this century. She calculates the staggering cost of wealthy nations pumping greenhouse gases into…

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Nobel Prize-winning economist Esther Duflo brings her data-driven precision to the climate crisis — and the numbers are damning. While world leaders haggle over finances at endless summits, rising temperatures will kill millions in the poorest countries by the end of this century. She calculates the staggering cost of wealthy nations pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, proving that getting billionaires to pay their fair share in taxes is the best way to cover these damages.

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57 Comments

57 Comments

  1. @SusanMannion-q1h

    December 7, 2025 at 3:12 pm

    Bad idea. All the billionaires money combined would not come close to paying our debt and they would lose motivation to risk and create amazing things or not have the money to create again. There are so few geniuses that create products or systems that help mankind, they should not be thwarted. Many, like Elon Musk, reinvest billions into another that may succeed or not. They try again and again. Elon Musk has a long list of his accomplishments.

    • @reckypoo

      December 7, 2025 at 3:18 pm

      You need to visualize the amount of money they have. A small tax benefits a lot of people and is barely an inconvenience to the mega-rich.

    • @SusanMannion-q1h

      December 7, 2025 at 3:23 pm

      @reckypooThey pay plenty and so do the rest of the 1%z 50% of all federal taxes.,

    • @abeautifuldayful

      December 7, 2025 at 7:45 pm

      @SusanMannion-q1h Plenty is a relative term. Billionaires can afford higher tax rates. The poorest people in the world can’t even afford to survive in far too many cases, let alone even have the opportunities to thrive. Learn better.

    • @MrThatGuyYouForgot

      December 8, 2025 at 3:46 am

      1) She’s not talking about paying down debt. Did you watch the video? It feels like you’re just responding to your guess as to what she might say based on common talking points instead of her actual points. 2) This is a tired argument. People will not stop innovating because they have to be worth $200 million instead of a billion. Literally no one is going to go “I have this really great invention idea that will make me hundreds of millions, but I’m not going to do anything with it because I can’t make billions”. That’s nonsensical and you know it. I have a feeling you’re saying this in bad faith. 3) Are you one of those people Elon Musk pays to talk about how great he is? We all know he does that. If not, have you actually spoken to someone who has worked for him? The guy is a hack. He can’t do anything right. Everything he has achieved has been talented people working against the guy so his ventures will succeed. His engineers are constantly fixing his bad ideas or even outright ignoring them. The more people listen to him the worse he does. There are billions of people in the world. He’s just an extreme result of a lot of trials. 4) Data shows that proportionally billionaires (and other ultra wealthy people) actually make less investments in ventures than the middle class. If you wanted to maximize venture capital you’d take money away from billionaires not allow them to have more. Honestly, at that level of wealth, rent seeking becomes a much more lucrative way of making money. Why would you invest in a company when you can just have finance bros grow your money with higher returns doing nothing of value to anyone? You can try to point to individual cases, but again numbers are numbers.

    • @MrThatGuyYouForgot

      December 8, 2025 at 3:48 am

      ​@SusanMannion-q1hLearn what a progressive tax system is and why it makes sense.

  2. @reckypoo

    December 7, 2025 at 3:17 pm

    I want people to pay their fair share in taxes. However simply giving the money to the lower classes seems like a incredibly simple way of solving the problem.

    • @magneat

      December 7, 2025 at 3:22 pm

      Yes, just giving away money is not a good idea except certain cases. Much better approach to build infrastructure for poor people: like schools, study materials, work places where they can bring more value to other people.

    • @Lemonade-Eve

      December 7, 2025 at 10:39 pm

      ​@magneatthe speaker said that the government may use the taxes for their own purpose

    • @philthymcnasty4034

      December 7, 2025 at 11:49 pm

      Giving money to poor people IS simple. Costs very little to administer unlike various social services and virtually zero potential for corruption unlike traditional international aid.

    • @MrThatGuyYouForgot

      December 8, 2025 at 3:31 am

      ​@magneatApparently you are unfamiliar with how developing countries governments work. There’s pretty rampant corruption and there’s no way to fix that without significant economic development (i.e they wouldn’t need the money in the first place). You give that money to the governments then it just ends up in the pockets of politicians and officials who already are wealthy from government corruption. You are absolutely concerned with the wrong people misappropriating those funds. You give it to people and they’ll just use it to improve their lives. As stated in the video (which you should really listen to) they’ve done this and it works. The people you’re giving it to are so poor that they would only spend it on things that improve their lives.

    • @KM-yw3ft

      December 8, 2025 at 6:03 am

      They should invest into education and helping small businesses to stay competitive

  3. @marklewis1750

    December 7, 2025 at 3:17 pm

    Geezer!

  4. @magneat

    December 7, 2025 at 3:20 pm

    Duflo’s idea of taxing the ultra-rich is crucial, but most billionaires derive wealth from assets, not salary, legally minimizing tax exposure (like Bezos’s low reported income). Redirecting wealth is necessary, as is the need for transparency, given the skepticism surrounding the efficiency of climate funding initiatives.

    • @barnabeadriaens3703

      December 7, 2025 at 11:59 pm

      is correct

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:28 am

      Why ‘but’? Taxing the richs’ wealth is taxing their whole wealth, not their salary. See Gary’s economics or Zucman’s tax if you need explanations.

    • @magneat

      December 9, 2025 at 11:49 am

      @Gazeld I know a wealth tax targets assets, but my ‘but’ stands. Current tax laws and asset valuation challenges still allow the ultra-rich to legally minimize their tax exposure, as the referenced economists (Zucman/Saez) themselves detail. Having the goal doesn’t solve the structural problem yet.

  5. @ryancampbell2192

    December 7, 2025 at 3:21 pm

    She is again talking about a tax on assets…terrible idea.
    In the USA, those in “poverty” are still some of the wealthiest in the world & would have to be taxed as well.

    • @MrThatGuyYouForgot

      December 8, 2025 at 3:49 am

      Unless people in poverty are also somehow billionaires, that’s not what she even said.

  6. @theresamcghee8362

    December 7, 2025 at 3:48 pm

    Yes !!! Redistribute wealth and watch us revive our wonderful world together 🎉❤ Green up 😊

  7. @BaRDaKlt

    December 7, 2025 at 3:52 pm

    Commies back, back again..

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:54 am

      If only!
      And if only you were not brainwashed…

  8. @Googazon_Twitterberg

    December 7, 2025 at 4:51 pm

    Yeah… To “save the poorest people from climate change”.

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:52 am

      Climate change will affect everyone. A billionaire would be too stupid to think of a good life isolated in a bunker. That’s not a good life.

  9. @KaytGoudie-q4n

    December 7, 2025 at 5:02 pm

    Yes and they should give back to making funds that high. Why not?

  10. @dbz7103

    December 7, 2025 at 6:49 pm

    Taxing for charity is not charity.🧐
    Nothing says corruption like spending other people’s money. 💯

    • @MrThatGuyYouForgot

      December 8, 2025 at 3:50 am

      Yeah, just get rid of the whole concept of government. That’s never gone wrong right?

    • @dbz7103

      December 8, 2025 at 3:54 am

      @MrThatGuyYouForgotno, removal of a supreme law is far left, so far left it pushes libertarian ideology to the butt end of fascism which
      is leftist ideology
      Edit: spelling check librarian for libertarian

  11. @wernerklotz8207

    December 7, 2025 at 9:29 pm

    Communist agenda!

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:51 am

      If only!

  12. @motiv-8-u

    December 8, 2025 at 5:37 am

    If the oceans are gonna rise up even 2-3 ft like we have been told within the next few years why do all the people who are climate change absolutist all own million dollar homes right on the water

  13. @shabudinjaver4672

    December 8, 2025 at 6:14 am

    The politicians will squander what ever will be collected, the NGO have already showen it you have all the proof.

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:53 am

      Did you listen? That’s why she’s speaking of giving the money directly to the people.

    • @shabudinjaver4672

      December 9, 2025 at 6:29 am

      ​@GazeldGiving money directly to the people creates a welfare system and dependency which again.creates squandering instead provide better facilities in education with the participation of the receptionist at the grass roots level with strict monitoring lawfully than maybe it will function.

  14. @Mombierella

    December 8, 2025 at 6:25 am

    Read Atlas Shrugged Novel by Ayn Rand!

    • @Marian_Martin_Morgenstern

      December 8, 2025 at 7:28 am

      And after reading it do the world a solid one and throw it away, at best in a recycling bin…
      Maybe then the paper may at least become something useful, like Toilette paper

      You also are free to forgo the Bin and directly turn the Book into that only practical use it has

  15. @HmmHmmOkej

    December 8, 2025 at 6:57 am

    No. This is stupid. This is still flawed economical reasoning. We don’t need billionaires to “raise necessary funds”. That is complete nonsense. What we need is financial control with a genuine threat of seizing assets from global funds that pursue rent seeking and price gouging.
    We need to fundamentally change how we value assets by changing the model of corporate ownership and, this is the most important part of all, stop private banks ability to create money through loans. Unless we do this, taxing won’t make a damn difference.

    This will never happen though due to the overwhelming dominance of the financial interest for governments. Our politicians are cowards and bought by the financial lobbyists.
    Taxing won’t solve a damn thing unless there is actual power as resistance.
    Governments have the genuine power of expropriation for the public good. This is something we have completely forgotten in our greed to squeeze money out of every facet of the public utility.

    • @misscogito9865

      December 8, 2025 at 11:36 am

      Agreed. No single policy addressing wealth inequality can be effective until lobbying is outlawed in the top world economies.

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:32 am

      You aim the sun saying aiming the moon is not good?

    • @misscogito9865

      December 9, 2025 at 10:14 am

      @Gazeldpoor analogy

    • @HmmHmmOkej

      December 9, 2025 at 10:55 am

      @Gazeld I’m saying that taxation won’t make a difference unless it’s followed by a change in policy. It’s fairly common sense to advocate a higher tax rate for those with a higher net worth, due to the effects compounding interest will have on asset prices, but I also believe that, without policies that properly control the financial flows which allows for tax evasion, it won’t matter. We need to reduce their power and asset value through public expropriation and show governments they need a joint effort, through UN sanctions, to freeze overseas accounts with the intent of tax evasion. Only then, will taxation actually work.

  16. @mu86neer

    December 8, 2025 at 7:17 am

    My german bosses don’t speak in such accent..why so? Thanks

    • @bfendy

      December 8, 2025 at 7:42 am

      there are different dialects of german

    • @bfendy

      December 8, 2025 at 7:45 am

      also shes french so that would explain why the germans dont sound like that

  17. @vaibhavsingh39

    December 8, 2025 at 1:45 pm

    Thief are planning for the loot, loot the rich first, spread communism, kill all desires, enslave them all.

  18. @rudolfsykora3505

    December 8, 2025 at 4:03 pm

    But I moved to Monaco 😅

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:29 am

      With all you buildings? With all your clients? With all your land? Nope. They are taxed where they belong.

    • @rudolfsykora3505

      December 9, 2025 at 7:50 am

      ​@Gazeldwith all my income! I passed all properties to charity that my sister owns 😅

  19. @wonderbooooy

    December 8, 2025 at 5:32 pm

    Eat the rich.

  20. @toddgardner2826

    December 8, 2025 at 6:26 pm

    Bullshit

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:30 am

      Nope, quite serious.

  21. @toddgardner2826

    December 8, 2025 at 6:32 pm

    If you said that you will take from billionaires assest, then the billionaires create shell corporations and divide the assests until it is below your tax line. Or cash out the assests into unregulated assests. Do not waste your time trying to “steal from peter to pay paul”. Just teach paul how to better himself.

    • @robertjansen6019

      December 9, 2025 at 1:14 am

      “Better himself”??!?!?!?!?!?!~121!11 If you get stabbed, surely you need someone to just tell you to stop bleeding.

    • @Gazeld

      December 9, 2025 at 5:37 am

      What a stupid end of comment. If one becomes billionaires, it’s often by exploiting his workers and putting a lot of others in unemployment due to the fact that his companies make others close. Billionaires make more people poor.
      And the tax law proposals have already it covered: they take into account the WHOLE wealth of anybody. Simple. No possible escape.
      Get your information right before commenting.

  22. @TasinTalukder-b8k

    December 8, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    Nice

  23. @AB-wn2qm

    December 9, 2025 at 10:02 am

    The reality is that taxes are theft and government enables corporate monopolies to prevail which makes the world a worse place.

  24. @ricksatterstrom7461

    December 10, 2025 at 10:19 am

    I liked the monetary system on Star Trek. Until nobody cares about money and all needs are taken care of, socialism doesn’t work long term. Are you asking for a flat tax?

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