Rutger Bregman

We like to think that people have to work for their money.

— Rutger Bregman

My life philosophy is that you need a boring private life if you want to have a more exciting public life.

— Rutger Bregman

People are always yearning for a bigger story to be part of, it's not enough to live our own private lives.

— Rutger Bregman

It's one of the tragedies of the modern university that it offers little space to generalists.

— Rutger Bregman

Poverty is not a lack of character. Poverty is a lack of cash.

— Rutger Bregman

Almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance, right? And of the rich just not paying their fair share.

— Rutger Bregman

“Emancipation of women? Countries with short workweeks consistently top gender-equality rankings.”

— Rutger Bregman

“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008)”

— Rutger Bregman

“The bottom line is that wealth can be concentrated somewhere, but that doesn’t also mean that’s where it’s being created. This is…

— Rutger Bregman

I think one of the most important facts of basic income would be that it's not only a redistribution of income, but…

— Rutger Bregman

I was born in 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and people of my generation were taught that…

— Rutger Bregman

Research suggests that someone who is constantly drawing on their creative abilities can, on average, be productive for no more than six…

— Rutger Bregman

“Income inequality,” say two leading scientists who have studied twenty-four developed countries, “makes us all less happy with our lives, even if…

— Rutger Bregman

Basic income would give people the most important freedom: the freedom of deciding for themselves what they want to do with their…

— Rutger Bregman

Year after year, politicians have drafted huge piles of legislation on the assumption that most people are not good. And we know…

— Rutger Bregman

New ideas rarely come from the moderate parties in The Hague or Washington, in Brussels or Westminster. The world's political centres are…

— Rutger Bregman

“The correlation between ethnic background and crime, it turns out, is precisely zero. None, nothing, nada. Youth crime, the report stated, has…

— Rutger Bregman

Most of Mark Zuckerberg's income is just rent collected off the millions of picture and video posts that we give away daily…

— Rutger Bregman

“Is it any wonder that the cultural archetype of my generation is the Nerd, whose apps and gadgets symbolize the hope of…

— Rutger Bregman

Since 1963, the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center has conducted nearly 700 field studies on floods and earthquakes, and on-site research…

— Rutger Bregman

Most bayonets throughout history have probably not been used because soldiers just can't do it, something holds them back... the same goes…

— Rutger Bregman

“President Nixon presented a bill providing for a modest basic income, calling it “the most significant piece of social legislation in our…

— Rutger Bregman

We know from scientific studies that infants as young as six months old can distinguish right from wrong and have a preference…

— Rutger Bregman

True innovation takes at least 10 to 15 years, whereas the longest that private venture capitalists are routinely willing to wait is…

— Rutger Bregman

“The inventor of GDP cautioned against including in its calculation expenditure for the military, advertising, and the financial sector,33 but his advice…

— Rutger Bregman

“Recently, the International Monetary Fund published a report which revealed that too much inequality even inhibits economic growth.22 Perhaps the most fascinating…

— Rutger Bregman

“Besides being blind to lots of good things, the GDP also benefits from all manner of human suffering. Gridlock, drug abuse, adultery?…

— Rutger Bregman

“It empowers people,” one of the social workers said about the personalized budget. “It gives choices. I think it can make a…

— Rutger Bregman

“Countless studies have shown that people who work less are more satisfied with their lives.37 In a recent poll conducted among working…

— Rutger Bregman

“For us today, it is still difficult to imagine a future society in which paid labor is not the be-all and end-all…

— Rutger Bregman

“If it is true that ideas don’t change things gradually but in fits and starts – in shocks – then the basic…

— Rutger Bregman

“We’re indignant that men get paid more than women for doing the same work, and that white Americans earn more than black…

— Rutger Bregman

“To economists, everything revolves around scarcity - after all, even the biggest spenders can't buy everything. However, the perception of scarcity is…

— Rutger Bregman

“There is, however, another avenue of utopian thought, one that is all but forgotten. If the blueprint is a high-resolution photo, then…

— Rutger Bregman

“The Greek GDP spiked 25% when statisticians dove into the country’s black market in 2006, for instance, thereby enabling the government to…

— Rutger Bregman

“Esther Duflo, a professor at MIT with a strong French accent, likens all this research on development aid to medieval bloodletting.6 The…

— Rutger Bregman

“As illusions go, this one is pretty stubborn. When you’re obsessed with efficiency and productivity, it’s difficult to see the real value…

— Rutger Bregman

“Countless aid organizations and governments are convinced that they know what poor people need, and invest in schools, solar panels, or cattle.…

— Rutger Bregman

“Of course, there’s no clear line between who creates wealth and who shifts it. Lots of jobs do both. There’s no denying…

— Rutger Bregman

“To calculate the GDP, numerous data points have to be linked together and hundreds of wholly subjective choices made regarding what to…

— Rutger Bregman