The economist and senior official Jacques Attali is the guest Thursday of "It feels good", for his book "Media stories. Smoke signals to social networks, and after".

Asked about the situation related to Covid-19, he asks that an allowance be paid "immediately" to students, and that it continue after the end of the health crisis.

INTERVIEW

They say he has the ear of presidents.

Many students would like Emmanuel Macron to listen to his proposal.

Guest Thursday of 

It feels good

for his book

Media Stories.

Smoke signals to social networks, and after

, the economist and senior official Jacques Attali pleads in favor of an allowance paid to students.

He claims that it be paid "immediately" to French youth, undermined by the health crisis linked to Covid-19.

But also ask for it to last after the crisis.

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"I am against universal income"

"If there was a priority for me, it is to give an allowance to the students. Because it is a scandal not to help them to continue their studies", explains Jacques Attali.

And it takes its example, in this request, from other European countries.

"I am in favor of doing like the Danes and Norwegians, who give students the equivalent of 1200 euros all inclusive, taking everything else into account."

This allowance is not, according to Jacques Attali, a form of universal income.

"I am against this principle, because universal income is what is given without compensation" he distinguishes.

"Now, there is a counterpart: it's work. Studying is a job, it's a real profession."

The senior official would like the government to start by paying 500 to 600 euros to each student.

"Already, that would already be not bad", he estimates.

"It's selfless selflessness"

This system promoted by Jacques Attali would not stop with the end of the health crisis.

He wants this allocation to be implemented "all the time, permanently".

A choice which is justified according to him from an economic point of view.

"The pandemic shows us it well, if a student, for example in medicine, no longer has the means to live, he abandons his studies. And he is a doctor who will be missed in ten years", demonstrates- he.

This future doctor should therefore be helped to continue his studies.

"Those who today refuse to give him enough to eat, live, and continue his studies will complain in 10 years that there are not enough doctors," he adds.

Helping students today would therefore benefit society as a whole in the long term.

"This is what I call self-interested altruism", indicates Jacques Attali.

"We had better be altruistic."