It goes into great detail about all of the wonderful, inventive, amazing things that those people did with the money to better themselves and their communities. This book spends almost all of it's time addressing the case for providing universal income or 'money with no strings attached' to people who are struggling and/or have been struggling for a long time. 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 15-hour workweek, can become 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 has 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 all over the world.

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 realists book