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Under my presidency,
unemployment will go away.

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Under my presidency,
there will be 10% growth per year.

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Under my presidency, France
will lead the world's economy again.

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That's the kind of promises

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made by all those men and women

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who run for presidency.

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President!

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That's the dream job

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for all politicians, both men and women,

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in our country.

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But did they just look at the first word?

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When you look closely,

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the full title is "President 
of the Republic".

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People typically focus on "President"
and neglect the "Republic" side.

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So what is a republic?

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A republic is a flag,
and a national anthem,

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but rest assured,

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we're not here today
to learn "La Marseillaise".

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What I'd like to talk about today

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is the republican motto:
Freedom, equality, brotherhood.

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It's a fascinating motto
that comes to us from the Enlightenment.

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and today we'll try to assess
how well we implement it

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after 200 years.

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Brotherhood, equality, freedom.

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Let's start with brotherhood.

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What brotherhood are we talking about,

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when in our country

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more than nine million people
live under the poverty line,

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in a country like ours,
which is the world's fifth economy?

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Equality, then.

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Where is the equality,

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when the richest 10% makes
just as much as the remaining 90%?

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Compared to this room,

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and assuming there is
more or less 100 people,

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and the only asset
in the room is the chairs?

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It's like I said to the 10 people
in the first row:

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"You are entitled to own 50 chairs",

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and to the other 90,

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"Get by with the remaining ones"

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Nonsense.

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Freedom, then.

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What freedom is that,

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when addressing our fundamental needs

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takes forcing someone into find a job

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in a market with more
than 9% of unemployment?

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Brotherhood, equality, freedom.

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You can sense the health status
of the republican motto

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with a number: nine.

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Nine like nine million people
under the poverty line.

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Nine like the nine tenths of people

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making as much as the richest tenth.

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And nine, like 9%
of unemployment in our country.

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The purpose of my talk, anyway,
is not putting you down.

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Somehow, we will have to try
and find a solution.

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What I'd like to talk to you about today
is the universal income.

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So what is universal income?

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Just to start, is a definition
with three criteria to match

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so it can be properly defined:
"universal income".

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A universal income is a sum of money

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that's granted to everyone
on a monthly basis,

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with no strings attached,
to each individual.

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If this sum of money
is only granted to young people

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or only to those who make
less than 2,000 euro per month,

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that's not a universal income.

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If we talk about a sum of money

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that comes with the condition

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of finding some kind of job,

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that's not a universal income.

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If that sum of money

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is only granted
to a household, or a couple,

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that's not a universal income.

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These are the three needed criteria

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in order to properly talk
about universal income.

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With this definition in mind,
many questions may arise.

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First question: why?

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Why in the world one might want
to implement a universal income?

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Essentially for two reasons.

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One more "historical",
the other more contemporary.

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The historical reason is,

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because, truth be told,
even if current debates

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present universal income
as a new idea,

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it's actually been discussed
for many centuries now.

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In history,

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one of the first thinkers
to propose universal income

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was Thomas Paine, in 18th century.

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The idea was to fight poverty

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and redistribute wealth
with a very simple idea:

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the property of land, that we all share,

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and belongs to everyone,

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has been collected by the few.

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Therefore, not everyone
has a piece of land

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to address their basic needs.

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Therefore, as a compensation,

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he longed for the implementation
of a universal grant.

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The most contemporary reason,

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which is why the debate
is having a comeback now,

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is that the universal income

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could be a viable answer
to an ever changing job market.

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We must be aware that
with automation and digitalization

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a lot of jobs will disappear,

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and others will be
created to replace them.

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What no one is sure about today is,

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will new jobs

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outgrow the destroyed ones?

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I'll go straight to the answer:

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we do not know.

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The only thing we know

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is that today's new jobs

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will be much less stable
than yesterday's ones.

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In the past, an employee could remain
40 years in the same company;

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today, not only you won't stay
in the same company for 40 years,

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but over a single workday
several activities could be done.

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Therefore, a universal income
would in a sense act

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like a safety line

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for a less linear job market.

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First question: why?

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And the second is: how much?

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How high should this universal income be?

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A lot of propositions
have been formulated.

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But generally speaking,

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the range goes from RSA,
a little more than 500 euro per month,

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to SMIC, a little less
than 1,200 euro per month,

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with the poverty line in-between.

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The poverty line, in France,

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it's 1,000 euro per month,
for a single person.

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How do you measure that?

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It's an international definition.

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It's 60% of median income.

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So what's the median income?

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It's the income level
that splits people in two:

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50% of people make more
than that, 50% less.

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In France, median income is 1,666 euro.

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And 60% of 1,666 euro, it's 1,000 euro.

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Why is poverty calculated that way?

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Because one is always poor
compared to where she lives.

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It's easy to get
that 1,000 euros in France.

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It can help you get by,
but its hardly a liveable income;

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In a developing country, they'd make
a much bigger positive difference.

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You could even be labeled as rich.

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Why, then, and how much.

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The third question you might ask is: how?

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How to implement it? How to finance it?

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There are three great funding families.

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The first is self funding.

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The idea is:

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with a universal income
at the level of poverty line,

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RSA has no reason to be.

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So the amount currently allocated to RSA

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could be diverted to universal income.

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The second funding family
of universal income are taxes.

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00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:04,920
And taxes are often related

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00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:06,680
to the philosophical reason

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00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,600
why someone should implement
universal income.

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If the policy goals

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are fighting against povery
and sharing wealth,

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we'd rather tax incomes or assets.

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If instead the real goal

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is coping with the shifts
in the labor market,

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we'll probably end up taxing

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00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:29,480
companies and robots.

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And the last source of funding
of universal income,

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an almost neglected ones,
in public debates,

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is monetary creation.

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You must know that currently,
to boost the economy,

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central banks create money out of thin air

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and inject it into the system.

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And we might well ask ourselves,

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why give this money to private banks

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instead of giving it directly to citizens?

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The bottom line, with universal income,

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00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:06,200
is that's a broad concept
with different implementations.

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00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:11,050
My closest connections
call me "Mr Universal Income"

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but actually, I don't appreciate
every possible flavour of it.

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Universal income
is a concept I understand.

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I agree with some of its implementations

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and disagree with some other ones.

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So we have a failing republican motto

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and a broad, multifaceted concept.

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What if we combined the two?

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That would give us a R.E.V.E.
(dream), our dream.

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A dream we made with Romain,

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with whom I founded the Ecolo-Humanists.

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R.E.V.E [Dream]

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stands for Emancipatory Income
to Express Ourselves in Life.

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Let's reconsider the Republican Motto

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00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:02,440
so we can better defines

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00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:05,720
what our universal income
would ideally look like.

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Brotherhood.

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00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:11,200
For us, an ideal universal income

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would be set at the level
of the poverty line.

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00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,810
That would allow us, by the way,
to respect Article 25

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00:10:19,810 --> 00:10:22,280
of the Universal Declaration
of the Human Right.

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00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:23,440
This Article 25

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00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,040
of the Universal Declaration
of the Human Right

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00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,360
mandates that everyone
has a right to a standard of living

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00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,200
high enough to address
our fundamental needs:

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00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:37,120
food, shelter, and a roof over our head.

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00:10:37,770 --> 00:10:40,680
Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, Article 25.

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00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:45,120
We signed it long ago,
but we still fail to respect it

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00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:48,020
Equality.

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00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,680
For us, universal income
should be a redistribution tool

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00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:55,740
tied to a progressive taxation

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00:10:55,740 --> 00:10:58,080
in order to finance it.

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00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:00,800
We didn't say there will be
no simplification.

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00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,250
Some aids will forcibly disappear.

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00:11:04,250 --> 00:11:06,160
But often, in today's conversation,

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00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:09,120
universal income is only seen
as a simplification tool.

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00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:13,440
For us, it should also be
a redistribution tool.

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00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:15,960
And finally, freedom.

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00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:21,120
What freedom would give
this freedom, this universal income?

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00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:23,800
It would allow us to say no.

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00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:25,600
The ability to say no.

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00:11:26,020 --> 00:11:29,000
Which is fundamental,
in order to be masters of our own life.

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00:11:30,190 --> 00:11:35,400
Saying no could allow employees
to negotiate better working conditions,

215
00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:37,040
and thus work better.

216
00:11:38,370 --> 00:11:39,280
Likewise,

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00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,720
some may choose to work less

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00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:44,680
in moments of life when they'd rather

219
00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:48,080
raise a baby, start a company.

220
00:11:49,030 --> 00:11:51,480
Working less? Working better?

221
00:11:51,660 --> 00:11:55,280
We could even start asking ourselves,
what can be called work?

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00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,600
That's why we've chosen
to illustrate freedom with bees.

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00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,360
Currently, if you consider a bee's worth,

224
00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:08,200
and GDP as our single indicator
to meter the economy,

225
00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:11,760
GDP gives bees no value

226
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,520
but the honey they make and we sell.

227
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:17,960
Whereas the true added value of bees

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00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,520
is their pollination,

229
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:24,000
that allows fruits and flowers to develop.

230
00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:27,600
Likewise, speaking of human beings,

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00:12:27,810 --> 00:12:29,320
we could ask ourselves:

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00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:31,240
are we worthless

233
00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:35,320
except for the monetary value
we create in a company?

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00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:38,390
Or perhaps, the added value that's created

235
00:12:38,390 --> 00:12:40,850
isn't, just like for pollination,

236
00:12:40,850 --> 00:12:42,680
all those social relationships of ours

237
00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:46,080
that allow us to realise our potential,
and knit the fabric of society?

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00:12:49,370 --> 00:12:53,070
Our R.E.V.E. [dream], Emancipatory
Income to Express Ourselves in Life.

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00:12:53,070 --> 00:12:57,040
If there's a word
to remember, in this definition,

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is the emancipatory side.

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00:12:59,490 --> 00:13:03,180
For us, the implementation
of this ideal universal income

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00:13:03,180 --> 00:13:05,040
would be a true paradigm shift.

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00:13:05,720 --> 00:13:09,480
We live in a society today
where we "make ends meet"

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00:13:10,360 --> 00:13:12,760
and those who are left behind are helped,

245
00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,640
despite the a cost for them
of social stigma,

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00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:18,560
treated as they might be
like aided people.

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00:13:20,070 --> 00:13:22,360
With the introduction
of a universal income,

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00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:24,000
the game changes completely.

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00:13:24,270 --> 00:13:26,080
We could finally trust anyone,

250
00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:28,960
and those who are better off

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00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:33,800
will fund their universal income,
or other peoples'/

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00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:36,850
You've got it now;

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00:13:36,850 --> 00:13:39,770
our dream, and hopefully
someday your dream also,

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00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:44,720
is give some reality
to the republican motto.

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00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,600
Freedom, equality, brotherhood.

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00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,120
And in that moment, only in that moment,

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00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,960
we can wrap up the speech by saying:

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00:13:54,970 --> 00:13:57,450
Long live the Republic,
and long live France!

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00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:01,020
(Applause)