Item: Utopia for Realists
Rating: 5.00
Author: wordrevel

by Rutger Bregman

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today.

"A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell." -- New York Times

After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way -- and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. 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. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.

Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. 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.

Every progressive milestone of civilization -- from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy -- was once considered a utopian fantasy. 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. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

Initial thoughts: A few weeks ago, a friend asked me over coffee how I would tackle the problem of homelessness. This isn't a very visible problem in Singapore but in the UK it is, so it's no wonder that that's something that had been weighing more on her mind than mine. Utopia for Realists gave me further points to consider with regards to this problem, as well as about inequality, the abundance that we live with and how redistribution/an assured minimum wage might be a solution, and about time and leisure.

This book also made me think about the merits of work, what we really work for, things that matter to me and that I would much prefer to spend my time on. Doctors, nurses, teachers, garbage collectors, etc definitely do important work but what about people working in finance, law and advertising? To a certain extent, they do matter, but there also are many hours wasted that could be used to add true value to the world. Sure, many view work and being busy as makes of success but what if we recalibrated our views on work to include low to non-paid activities such as pursuing the arts, home keeping and raising children?

While I hadn't expected it, Utopia for Realists turned out to be a valuable book for me as I've been mulling over the past year about what I want to do with my time.

Utopia for Realists

by Rutger Bregman

Reviewed by Joséphine on Oct 8, 2018

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