Utopia for Realists
From a universal basic income to a 15 hour workweek, from a world without borders to a world without poverty it s time to return to utopian thinking Rutger Bregman takes us on a journey through history, beyond the traditional left right divides, as he introduces ideas whose time has come Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think you know In the words of leading social theorist Zygmunt Bauman, it is brilliant, truly enlightening, and eminently readable This original Dutch bestseller sparked a national movement for basic income experiments that soon made international headlines Available in English starting April 19, 2016. Best Read [ Utopia for Realists ] By [ Rutger Bregman ] – kino-fada.fr What a painful book to read during the first week of Trump s administration I swear every time I finished a chapter, a new policy would be announced that completely moved the needle of social progress in the other direction Solving poverty with a universal basic income Nope, here s a Secretary of Labor who thinks the minimum wage is already too high Reform the banking system so it s not one of the largest drivers of the economy Let me introduce you to the newest Goldman Sachs exec to run a What a painful book to read during the first week of Trump s administration I swear every time I finished a chapter, a new policy would be announced that completely moved the needle of social progress in the other direction Solving poverty with a universal basic income Nope, here s a Secretary of Labor who thinks the minimum wage is already too high Reform the banking system so it s not one of the largest drivers of the economy Let me introduce you to the newest Goldman Sachs exec to run a department in Washington Open our... Capitalist or communist, it all boils down to a pointless distinction between two types of poor, and to a major misconception that we almost managed to dispel some 40 years ago the fallacy that a life without poverty is a privilege you have to work for, rather than a right we all deserve.A breezy read with ideas that are backed up by genuinely interesting statistics and anecdotes.Argues that we can better society and move towards utopia by implementing three ideas a 15 hour workweek, a univer Capitalist or communist, it all boils down to a pointless distinction between two types of poor, and to a major misconception that we almost managed to dispel some 40 years ago the fallacy that a life without poverty is a privilege you have to work for, rather than a right we all deserve.A breezy read with ideas that are backed up by genuinely interesting statistics and anecdotes.Argues that we can better society and move towards utopia by implementing three ideas a 15 hour workweek, a universal basic income UBI and open borders.The problem isn t the programs he s advocating, it s the neoliberal lens he s viewing them from he grotesquely spends the last chapter blowing Hayek and Friedman The 15 hour workweek, for example, sounds fantastic the way he lays it outtime to play, to dedicate to art, to spend with fam...Radical ideas, at first glance, but all put forward in this book aren t unreasonable, neither are they unrealistic They are logically presented and supported with facts and tons of research and history It is an enlightening ...I respond to utopian thinking the way any other moderately informed liberal does Well, wouldn t that be nice o_O But theI read of Bregman s book, themy resistance melted away Why aren t we setting our sights higher than adding a dollar to the minimum wage and opposing Trump s wall Hell, you wanna address unemployment as a result of automation Why not support a universal basic income and a shorter work week You d also take a couple of steps towards gender equality to boot By t I respond to utopian thinking the way any other moderately informed liberal does Well, wouldn t that be nice o_O But theI read of Bregman s book, themy resistance me...One of a spate of books to come out on the Basic Income idea to eliminate poverty and mitigate the coming automation economic crisis I like the idea myself and the author marshalls studies to back up that a basic income would go a long way to reduce poverty I am not sure that problem of a sense of purpose will be easier to tackle when robots start taking away large sectors of the labor force but it is better than letting people starve and the economy going to crap the author also tackles the ...Really wanted to like this I m a big fan of The Correspondent s journalism, and believe that basic income is an important idea whose time might have come It was certainly interesting to learnabout the history, and the few studies that have been undertaken Also fascinating to learnabout the history and failings of GDP as a measure.However the attempts to persuade seemed full of holes and contradictions One minute the author is complaining about how technological progress has slowe Really wanted to like this I m a big fan of The Correspondent s journalism, and believe that basic income is an important idea whose time might have come It was certainly interesting to learnabout the history, and the few studies that have been undertaken Also fascinating to learnabout the history and failings of GDP as a measure.Howev...Loved it I m going to share some of the excerpts I liked.1 Whether you look at the incidents of depression, burnout, drug abuse, high dropout rates, obesity, unhappy childhoods, low election turnout or social and political distrusts, the evidence points to the same culprit every time inequality But hold on what should it matter if some people are filthy rich if even those who are very poor are better off than the kings of centuries ago A lot Because it s all about relative poverty How Loved it I m going to share some of the excerpts I liked.1 Whether you look at the incidents of depression, burnout,...We have lost our vision, Rutger Bregman writes, mired in old paradigms and blind to the possibilities we should be imagining We could be realizing the world predicted by 20th c thinkers.Subtitled How We Can Build The Ideal World, Utopia for Realists is an international best seller, first published in the Netherlands where it ignited a debate and inspired a movement.Bregman begins by reminding us of how recently life was a vale of tears, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, as philoso We have lost our vision, Rutger Bregman writes, mired in old paradigms and blind to the possibilities we should be imagining We could be realizing the world predicted by 20th c thinkers.Subtitled How We Can Build The Ideal World, Utopia for Realists is an international best seller, first published in the Netherlands where it ignited a debate and inspired a movement.Bregman begins by reminding us of how recently life was a vale of tears, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short, as philosophers wrote in the 16th c With the explosion of new technology and prosperity over the last two hundred years, humanity has achieved a standard of living that Medieval folk would consider Utopia indoor heat and cooling, flush toilets and clean water alone would make them marvel So wou...A reasonably good summary of the history of universal basic income and the drive to a shorter working week, although if you ve read a few long essays on those topics it s unlikely you ll learn much Unfortunately the book is spoiled by a few things Firstly, while I get that it has a point of view that it s conveying one that I agree with , I could ve done withopposing arguments, if only to arm myself in future.Secondly, one of the arguments is for open borders, which the author suggests A reasonably good summary of the history of universal basic income and the drive to a shorter working week, although if you ve read a few long essays on those topics it s unlikely you ll learn much Unfortunately the book is spoiled by a few things Firstly, while I get that it has a point of view that it s conveying one that I agree with , I could ve d...I m always interested in alternative political and economic theories due to my overwhelming unhappiness with the current state of the world and my own life.I really felt like this book put forth a lot of ideas in a coherent and meaningful way You would think that the eradication of poverty is something people can all agree on, but unfortunately that is not the case I found it interesting how often the book discussed the US even though the author is not American Reading this was so pleasant wh I m always interested in alternative political and economic theories due to my overwhelming unhappiness with the current state of the world and my own life.I ...
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- 12 November 2018 Rutger Bregman
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- 262 pages
- Rutger Bregman
- Utopia for Realists