Utopia for Realists
And how we get there
Rutger Bregman
Translated by Elizabeth Manton
Having read it
★★★★★
A really good, honest, realistic and productive read. A centrist political approach, with a little bit of left and right for balance and realism, to striving to work as one, global community, to build a more sustainable, productive and happier society is the way forward. The bottom line should be people not profit and this book is a very helpful perspective and could even act, along with all its referenced authors and their work, as a working manifesto for real progress.
A good passage
...the fact is, we’re all becoming more and more alike. We all read the same bestsellers, watch the same blockbusters, and sport the same sneakers. Where our grandparents still toed the lines imposed by family, church, and country, we’re hemmed in by the media, marketing, and a paternalistic state. Yet even as we become more and more alike, we’re well past the era of the big collectives.
A second good passage
Don’t get me wrong, capitalism is a fantastic engine for prosperity. ‘It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals,’ as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in their Communist Manifesto. Yet it’s precisely because we’re richer than ever that it is now within our means to take the next step in the history of progress: to give each and every person the security of a basic income. It’s what capitalism ought to have been striving for all along. See it as a dividend on progress, made possible by the blood, sweat, and tears of past generations. In the end, only a fraction of our prosperity is due to our own exertions. We, the inhabitants of the Land of Plenty, are rich thanks to the institutions, the knowledge, and the social capital amassed for us by our forebears. This wealth belongs to us all. And a basic income allows all of us to share it.
A third good passage
Meritocracy? Bring it on. Let’s finally pay people according to their real contributions. Waste collectors, nurses, and teachers would get a substantial raise, obviously, while quite a few lobbyists, lawyers, and bankers would see their salaries dive into the negatives. If you want to do a job that hurts the public, go right ahead. But you’ll have to pay for the privilege with a heftier tax.