After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don’t need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn’t be this way-and in some places it isn’t.
Rutger Bregman’s TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. His April 2017 talk continues to make the provocative case, detailing the idea’s 500-year history and even its brief success in a forgotten trial in Manitoba in the 1970s. Nearly a million views later, guaranteed basic income is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It’s just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.
Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon’s near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come.
Every progressive milestone of civilization-from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy-was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman’s book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.
Rutger Bregman In Conversation With Terrence McNally At ‘Live Talks Los Angeles’
LiveTalksLA (5/6/17)
Rutger Bregman in conversation with Terrence McNally — an in-studio interview at Live Talks Los Angeles. Bregman discussed his new book, “Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World” .
“If you’re bored with hackneyed debates and decades-old right-wing and left-wing clichés, you may enjoy the bold thinking, fresh ideas, lively prose, and evidence-based arguments in Utopia for Realists.” ― Steven Pinker New York Times bestselling author of “The Blank Slate” and “The Better Angels of Our Nature” Bregman is a journalist at The Correspondent, and one of Europe’s most prominent young thinkers. He has published four books on history, philosophy, and economics.
His History of Progress was awarded the Belgian Liberales prize for best nonfiction book of 2013, and Bregman has twice been nominated for the European Press Prize, and he recently gave a well received TED Talk (April 2017 in Vancouver)
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Rutger Bregman: Billionaires Need To Stop Talking Philanthropy & Finally Step Up And Pay Their Share Of Taxes
CBS News (1/30/19)
Historian and author Rutger Bregman made waves at the World Economic Forum in Davos when he told billionaires in attendance that large marginal tax rates, like those suggested by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are better for the public good than philanthropy. Bregman joined CBSN to discuss how tax policy could be used to reduce inequality.