62 people, at this very moment, are richer than 3.5 billion other people put together. As prickly as they are about having to share their fortune with others, the stark truth is they took that wealth away from the rest of us in a variety of different ways. There never seems to be enough money for these type of people. Of course, any time you even hint at a redistribution of wealth to a obscenely wealthy conservative, they get prickly and defensive. I came away thinking, this Bregman really knows how to get under people’s skin. The footage and audio was leaked, and though I wasn’t surprised to hear Carlson get upset with a guest, I was shocked to listen to the vehemence and the frankly crazed level of his response.

Rutger Bregman, the Dutch historian, first came to my attention when recently he got into a tiff with Tucker Carlson. Progress is the realization of Utopias.”-Oscar Wilde. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. ”A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world. 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. 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.Įvery progressive milestone of civilization-from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy-was once considered a utopian fantasy.

Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.

A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way-and in some places it isn't. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today.Īfter working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need.

Utopia for the realist