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    Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There
    Unavailable
    Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There
    Unavailable
    Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There
    Ebook303 pages4 hours

    Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There

    By Rutger Bregman

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

    'Listen out for Rutger Bregman. He has a big future shaping the future' Observer

    'A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell' New York Times

    'The Dutch wunderkind of new ideas' Guardian

    In Utopia for Realists, Rutger Bregman shows that we can construct a society with visionary ideas that are, in fact, wholly implementable. Every milestone of civilisation – from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy – was once considered a utopian fantasy. New utopian ideas such as universal basic income and a fifteen-hour work week 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, beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he introduces ideas whose time has come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMar 5, 2017
    ISBN9781408890257
    Unavailable
    Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There
    Author

    Rutger Bregman

    Rutger Bregman (Westerschouwen, Países Bajos, 1988), historiador formado en las universidades de Utrecht y California, es autor de seis libros, entre los que destacan History of Progress (Premio Belgian Liberales como mejor obra de no ficción de 2013), Utopía para realistas y este que ahora publicamos. Ha sido nominado en dos ocasiones para el European Press Prize por sus contribuciones periodísticas en The Correspondent. Sus artículos se han publicado también en medios como The Washington Post, The Guardian y la BBC. Ha impartido conferencias en las TED Talks y en el Foro Económico Mundial de Davos.

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    Reviews for Utopia for Realists

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      It’s no holds barred approach to telling the truth while providing RCT based solutions to the problems.
    • 5/5
      Excellent. Rather than just expounding his ideas, Bergman consistently refers to evidence to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing ideas that may seem outlandish, such as universal basic income, a shorter working week, and open borders. This book opened my mind to counterintuitive ideas that research suggest would make society better off. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I admit to being a bit of a latecomer to this party, having only discovered Rutger Bregman following his extraordinary non-interview on Fox News recently. This is his best-selling book laying out the case for a number of reforms, some quite moderate (like universal basic income, which even Richard Nixon advocated) and others far more radical (abolishing borders between countries). These are pretty much all good ideas, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them utopian. And also, for some strange reason, he's not mentioned some of the great experiments in social change including the independent Georgian republic of 1918-21, or the kibbutz movement in Israel. Well worth the read.
    • 4/5
      very thought provoking

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Picked this up awhile back and just got around to reading it. It'll be interesting to see how this book, or rather the thinking in it, ages over the next decade or so.Kudos on the title and cover design, which got me to pick up, buy and read a book I might have missed otherwise. What's interesting: UFR covers ideas that are sometimes seen as kooky or unrealistic and makes them seem more accessible. It's engaging and optimistic and presents economic and societal changes as opportunities to approach with innovative thinking and experimental ideas. Some of the usage cases, I had heard little about (or forgotten much of either of) which is embarrassing.In my opinion, much of what he presents isn't ready for prime time and/or widescale execution and policy implementation, but is ripe for additional experimentation in various economies and applications to see how/where it might be useful or adapted.I thought the universal income idea is closest to being useful and adoptable. The 15-hour workweek is interesting in concept, but unsure of its practical value...to what end?The idea of eliminating all borders was the furthest removed from reality and the least supported.As others have said, this book is useful as a conversation and thought-starter. It has limited value as a roadmap and makes no attempt to address how these would be done and what the pitfalls or costs of implementation (literal or figurative) would be, making it hard to take seriously, much less to put into practice in any meaningful way.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It's all quite sound but kept me asking: so what? Not the manual it sells itself as on cover.
    • 5/5
      Went through 3 of the books main points (universal basic income, 15-hour workweek, and open borders) and how all of these things would contribute to overall growth for people worldwide (and not just economic growth) and the elimination of extreme poverty.
    • 4/5
      A work that challenges you to critically examine the status quo, and your part in it. Bregman's bold ideas about the feasibility of a better society and a brighter future made me feel more positive and optimistic, but at the same time, depressed about the state of the world today. He finishes with a bright, uplifting 'manifesto' for bringing Utopia to life. Above all, challenge the status quo, believe in the possible, and never stop projecting the change you want to see in your world. This world needs healing, and these elegant and compassionate ideals are a path toward a happier tomorrow. This book gave me hope.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Utopia For Realists is a Left manifesto. It explores three policies guaranteed to enrage right wingers: a guaranteed income, a shorter work week and open borders. Rutger Bregman does it with splendid panache. The book is a totally positive, upbeat read – most unusual for a defensive, defeatist Left. The studies and the facts are all there. Deny them at your peril, he seems to say.To appreciate and enjoy Utopia For Realists, you must buy into the initial premise that our problem is we can’t come up with anything better than the way things are now. We have run out of goals. We have run out of ideas. We are all about cutting back, servicing less, and ignoring various elephants in the room, like automation overloading us with leisure time. Western society is so wealthy in historic terms that we don’t realize we have reached Utopia. Even at our worst, we are infinitely better off than our forebears. What we need now is a new Utopia to aim for.Guaranteed income sounds impossibly expensive, but everywhere it has been tried – dozens of places, it has worked spectacularly. For one thing, every dollar spent saves three in less supervision of beneficiaries (eg. Police and court services, pointless workshops, training sessions and reports on everyone all the time). For another, the poor don’t drink away the income; they hang onto it dearly, measuring it out only as needed for the biggest impact. Poverty is not an attitude; it is a shortage of cash.Two hundred years ago, we worked 70 hour weeks with no days off. And we were miserable. Today, we can be miserable with 40 hours weeks, two days off and 2-5 weeks’ vacation. Soon, we must face the reality of 15 hour weeks, because artificial intelligence will pick up where automated looms, assembly lines and robots have left off. We can massage it into a Utopia, or let it destroy our fabric. Our choice, but we need to start acting now.Borders prevent development and trade. Mexicans used to return from the USA at the rate of 85%. Now they have to stay put. Finding new markets or even just work is enlarged with a larger territory. Artificially compartmentalizing everyone is stultifying. Economically, politically, and socially. Passports and visas – a totally artificial construct recently invented, benefitting no one.Bregman doesn’t get into the self-imposed need for growth, though he does criticize the concepts of GNP/GDP. He says governing by numbers is the last resort of a country that no longer knows what it wants, a country with no vision of utopia. He ends with sound advice for the Left: stop caving to right wing dogma. You have access to dramatic facts. Use them. There are gigantic, proven solutions waiting to be implemented if only someone would sponsor them. He points out that the accepted issues of the day, like voting by women, same sex marriage and abolition of slavery were outrageously radical and completely unacceptable just a few years ago. So be impossible and have a thick skin.David Wineberg

      5 people found this helpful