IEAoLU Tuesdays with Philippe Askenazy

Tuesday 8th November, at 6pm at the Lieu Unique, free entry

Conference with Philippe Askenazy, economist, research director at CNRS, Professor at ENS.

 The gap between winners (capitalists, entrepreneurs and experts) and losers (routine workers) is getting bigger and bigger. It is becoming increasingly difficult to bridge the gap through more equitable redistribution. Inspired by his latest book Tous rentiers!, Philippe Askenazy offers a step by step analysis of the mechanisms at work today, which opens up other avenues and perspectives. The distribution of income is linked to power relationships and is neither natural nor intangible. The winners monopolise ever greater incomes by developing the “everything is property” and “everyone is a property owner” approach, by privatizing knowledge and minimising the State’s role. Certain social groups hold increasing incomes. The mass of workers, supposedly unqualified but in reality more and more skilled, are under pressure from competition and productivity gains. This imbalance ends up imprisoning capitalism in a negative spiral. It can be corrected. But how can we redeem the value of labour, remotivate the workforce and weaken capital?

The debate will be put into perspective by Stangos Petros, Vice-President of the European Committee of Social Rights, Professor of European Law and Fellow 2014-15 at the IAS-Nantes. He will address the causes - including legal - of the growing Inequality in the distribution of wealth, in the context of tension generated by the policies adopted by the European Union.