Reform of capitalism: Governments must take responsibility

There is a fairly broad consensus in OECD countries that capitalism needs to be reformed in two directions: To ensure a fair income distribution where productivity gains are distributed to wage earners, which would reduce inequality; To reduce CO 2 emissions so as to meet the international climate commitments. But the method being pursued by governments is ineffective: they are asking companies to evolve in these directions and to prove that they are doing so, asking them to take environmental and social responsibility and exercise a “ duty of care ” with respect to their activities. It would be much more effective if governments also played a role in changing capitalism b y putting in place the right regulations and incentives: Tax incentives (to promote profit sharing with employees) so that income distribution becomes fairer; A sufficiently high CO 2 price. But governments are unable to coordinate themselves to implement these incentives and , instead, offload all the responsibility for the adjustment to companies.