Role and the response of the democratic process themselves and particularly it was invented in the 1920s and 30s not just in world war i which was much less than in europe and still the new institutions were invented by the u. S. Democracy institutions. So there is a lot to learn. We shouldnt just be me that they were starting years ago. They have been with us forever and there is a lot to learn on the perspective. As most of you probably know it is an extension of the property tax to include the attacks on the other properties and that has been called utopian by some people, but if the income tax was called utopian 100 plus years ago, could you talk about the iq test experience for the income tax . Its partly about the notion that we were appalled about the idea of the income tax but we began to tell a personal story. And as i listened to them talk about this, think about every time how its the story of our understanding of ourselves and why we are in these economic circumstances. So you talk about one of them ie many cases of extreme inequality, people blaming the political leaders by saying its their fault. Its that group or that other country. There is a question of how we can describe it any different time the pressures on most people, on the economy. If you feel like this is a work hard play by the rules economy where there are some ups and downs but mostly, if i work hard, my family is going to do okay. And if i work really hard at my kids are going to have a chance to do a little bit better than that and the bea their chaa little bit better chance. And that sets the stage if you can be leave that for everybody to participate in the economy you have a lot of stability and production and hard work. You get a lot of investment in the future and build a strong and robust future. At that moment an income tax is part of how we finance the things we did together and we did it progressively because people have more, partly because they have been rewarded by what we have done together. And we all have a sense of shared responsibility and shared investment in the outcome. Those that are rich have managed to write the rules so they get more and more. The regulations told in their favor so they have Better Business opportunities, so they have better ability to earn than everyone else out there working and when it starts t that start, when that starts to happe have n then when we get is a country that is headed in the wrong direction. I think the risks i will work hard and end up with nothing thats when the pieces start to break apart and the way that i see this is the have a right to talk about where the taxes should be appropriately placed into which parts of the wealth and income we want to tax but its a question about whether or not it is rigged. The gain in america right now is great rigged. Everyone is on their economic strain. Its not because its inextricable or had to be that way but to those at the top can hire the lobbyists and the lawyers. It affects the electoral system so powerfully that they get a set of rules written over and over and over year by year by year. The rules dont get better for the middle class. That is the profound or that we see from the great quality. There is a way that america is rigged that you described in the book and just now. I. Senor research is it similar in other countries or does inequality grow in different ways. [inaudible] in competition with one another including four of the tax system including the system of the investment [inaudible] regarding the financing of the Political Parties in the political life and the difference between the countri countries. So there are very different fiscal institutions that can make a huge difference. But notice the first place he goes to the financing opportunity. Its about education and about making sure that everybody gets a good education so that you have talented kid that may not e been born into wealthy families but could still have opportunities. I would expand that by saying its about investments in infrastructure. A business wants to start and has the power to plugin. So those are the investments that everybody feels they have a piece of this. I have an opportunity. I play by the rules. But the world in which those investments are undermined its looks at Something Like iranian budget which in effect which none of you remember, not you, but look at the basic premise behind the ryan budget. Preserved lots of loopholes with those at the top, cut taxes for those at the top and how do they plan to pay for its . By cutting the investments that create opportunities. Cut the investments in education and infrastructure and research the things that help build a future. That drives us towards more inequality but it undercuts the basic premise of this country of work hard and play by the rules you have a stake in in the outcome diana from florida asks for this one how will the costs and consequences of Climate Change interact with economic inequality . I think it shows that we have much more difficult problems to extra to solve. What are we going to do about Climate Change . I think we have to solve these problems and the lack of transparency right away to get a sense of the real issue and part of the issue is to do something about the Climate Change. Im very sad that we are losing so much time on these issues just making sure when the president was unaware [inaudible] are we going to be able to get this transformation and at the end of the day the United States government put sanctions on the banks that made a difference so the good news is that we can make a difference. They are smart and have proper sanctions that say we are all attached to free trade but we need fair tax systems we can solve it and move on to issues that solve Climate Change. You separate Climate Change from just this other debate. I see the same occurring with different words but think about it this way. We have now tens of millions of people who live right near the coasts just to pick one example. And so what is happening right now in the debate in the United States . There are giant industries that pollute and the consequences they make immediate profits and the effect of the pollution will be filled by lots of people around the country and the globe. Its in their interest to continue to be able to bloom crosby can make shortterm profits and everybody also bear the cost. Think about it. They are able to a mass of the lobbyists to go to washington, to influence lawmakers and their regulators to do everything they can to maintain their opportunities to poison the water in order to promote shortterm profits. Everyone else who has to pay the price on that doesnt have that same kind of organized ability to make their voices heard in the same way for the lawyers in washington. For me this is just one more example of how we have any quality and how we have a raid system where a handful are able to reap the benefits at the cost of everyone else and the Climate Change like economic inequality are both symptoms of the same problems. The same problem of those writing the rules too much in their favor and everyone else getting left behind. [applause] we have a ton of questions submitted on one particular issue that jumped out and that was student lending. I dont know what the situation here is in france but in the United States there are probably people that have Student Loans. [laughter] and there are a variety of different questions about but ba from arkansas and Robert Morgan asked if he would support some version of student loan forgiveness. You think we are headed in a direction where its become so unsustainable there will be coming out right forgiveness . Forgiveness . Spinnaker would nee let me give a couple facts on Student Loans. Right now we have 1. 2 trillion outstanding in the Student Loan Debt. 44 million americans are dealing with outstanding Student Loans. Mostly young people although i should add people 60 and over over about 43 billion in Student Loans. 60 and over . People that guaranteed other loans and went back to school later in life. We have a lot of Student Loan Debt out here. Its starting to be so much that its dragging down the economy. The reports are starting to pile up from the Consumer Financial protection bureau, from the Treasury Department and what it shows is that young people are not going at the rate that we anticipate and they are not starting business at the rate we would anticipate. They are not doing the economic things we would expect them to do because they are so burdened with debt. By the way one more piece is growing and its growing fast. Over the span of decades the amount has grown by about 70 so think about that we are on a fast slope up in terms of debt so what can we do about Student Loan Debt . There are multiple things we can do about the outstanding loan bet there are forgiveness programs that is a piece of it. We can bring down the Interest Rate of all Student Loan Debt outstanding. [applause] and here is a critical part of that. Keep in mind people have refinanced their home mortgages now that we are in the low interestrate environment theyve refinanced their Business Loans and township loans. You cant refinance your Student Loans so people out there are stuck in the 7 and 8 , 9 , just hit raise your hand when i get your number in the student n Interest Rates. The idea is that this gets to the heart of what we are talking about. The idea for the bill that we have pending and we have more than 30 cosponsors in the United States senate is debating on students is the title and it says whats refinance the debt to 3. 86 . That was the rate the republicans in the house and the senate agreed to last summer for all new Student Loans issued last year. We said if that works we will pick it higher on undergraduate Student Loans but lets refinanced to the rate but here comes the trick. Why does the u. S. Government not just refinance the debt and the answer is because the debt out there at 7 fro and 8 , nine or is producing tens of billions of dollars in profits for the United States government. In other words its in the budget right now. That is from 2007 to 2012, just that little slice of the loans is on track to produce 66 billion in profits for the United States government. So to be able to refinance the bank down, we have to find that money somewhere else. The money somewhere else. The proposal in this bill is to say fine we will pass the rule and billionaires will pay at least the same rate of taxes that their secretaries pay. [applause] but thats why its so critical right in the middle and this puts us directly i cant think of a better way to put this. The United States as a country can invest in young people by putting tens of billions of dollars towards reducing the Interest Rate on Student Loans. This is getting to the forgiveness question reducing the Interest Rate or they continue to invest tens of billions of dollars. In tax loopholes for billionaires and millionaires. Think about it for a minute. There are lobbyists who will protect every one of those tax loopholes and who will be there morning noon and night to make sure that the rule doesnt go through. The loopholes stay open and billionaires hang onto every single penny that they can get through. What have we got on the other side on Student Loans . Always got is our voices and our votes. That is fundamentally the best place that i can describe the inequality debate in america today. As the country going to be run for the billionaires and millionaires or are the rest of us going to say enough of this we want to invest instead of in the billionaires we want to invest in our students and we are going to take back our country and make our voices and votes heard . [applause] this event is sponsored by the group known in the United States as the Patriotic Millionaires and this is a group of more than 100 billionaires and millionaires calling for their taxes to be hired. Do you have anything like that in europe . In europe and france we usually dont pay much to go to the city but sometimes we dont get that much in exchange eith either. We need to find ways to combine efficiency and the court opportunity and thats complicated. I think what was just said is extremely important [inaudible] it gets a little frightening. It is getting extreme. In the systems im not sure that it is the right concept to get moving in the right direction. We have a number of questions on the role of the free trade and inequality and also the role of organized labor. You dont write much about the labor or organized labor in the book and i was wondering your take on the role and inequality and also what free trade agreements have been in the equal 30 by allowing the capital to be the free flow . About globalization has put the medium stillbirths on the highpressure in the countries. The union isnt playing the way they used to in the structure and then you factor in services and productions and its interesting to see the number of countries that use the National Minimum wage is to have been producing the National Minimum wage is in britain and germany and the countries as of ten or 20 years ago we saw that the union was the right place to negotiate and these two countries have been introduced in the National Minimum wage is because this can be the way to conduct thats more suitable in today so we need to think about this and white of the evolutio evolutions. I would add something more about the unions. In america the unions help build americas great middle class. And they did that in two ways. Those were in every way that benefits negotiated for alternately workout for everyone else and raise the wages for the union and nonunion workers and get Health Advocates for the union and nonunion workers. But here is the key. The second thing the unions did is they were out there as a force to argue things in the interests of working people generally. So the views were on the front line in Social Security and the fight for medicare into the fight for civil rights. Unions are out there to try to argue what benefits the middle of america. What benefits working people in america and it is no accident that a big part of what happened with trade policy was that it hit him unionized industries and helped take a lot out of from underneath the unionized workers in the United States and that the consequences not only economics but the consequence is political and that we see the rising inequality at a time when Union Strength has declined. I think those are deeply tied to each other. You call for a wealth tax and we have a onetime version of that in the United States with maybe one or two people. Known as the estate tax. Is a beefedup estate tax in a word we need to go to something more and you will collect i think we need both. It was a tax of course it is important and its good that it wasnt suppressed in the country ten years ago and i think it will be important in the future. The problem with attack the taxe property is that it does not progressive to the value of the Real Estate Property and also it doesnt take into account the Financial Assets or liabilities. So you have a lot of debt and sometimes it can be even higher [inaudible] and thereafter and still the same property tax in the event of someone who in addition [inaudible] this is a system that isnt do we need to introduce but how do we make it work better. It was created at about the same time as two centuries ago at the time that property and Land Property and be Financial Assets for the liability that hasnt been changed for 250 years. Of course this is not the right way to tax in the 21st century. So we could rewrite of the u. S. Tax code [inaudible] i would take the team to beat kassim tax revenue generated intiniowa didnt increase it. I would keep it exactly as it is but i would transform it into the network so that it would reduce the property tax form for those in the network with a huge amount of data and it would increase. I think that is perfectly doable. It isnt like everybody is going to go to mexico or canada right of way. The problem in the organization thawhich is a local matter but t was the same thing when century ago with the income tax according to the constitution the government couldnt do anything and then things happen. Sometimes things happen and we do not plan for them to happen. Knowing in advance what might happen i think the tax system has to adapt and it may take time but this is the best way to try to help make it happen one day. How does that sound . I am in. [applause] i made on the notion that we have to rewrite our tax code. And just thinking about what youre talking about with the estate tax is a fundamental question in this country which do we think deserves more rewards . Is that those that work hard to get something to happen or those that were born into the right family cliques and who are protected by the tax code that says generation after generation they just get out of there and live off of wha