“The great milestones of civilization always have the whiff of utopia about them at first. According to renowned sociologist Albert Hirschman, utopias are initially attacked on three grounds: futility (it’s not possible), danger (the risks are too great), and perversity… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“If all the developed countries would let in just 3% more immigrants, the world’s poor would have $305 billion more to spend, say scientists… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“When Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15, 2008, and inaugurated the biggest crisis since the 1930s, there were no real alternatives to hand. No one had laid the groundwork. For years, intellectuals, journalists, and politicians had all firmly maintained that we’d reached the end of the age of “big narratives” and that it was time to trade in ideologies for… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share
I think one of the most important facts of basic income would be that it's not only a redistribution of income, but also of… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
The great thing about money is that people can use it to buy things they need instead of things self-appointed experts think they need. — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“The idea that the GDP still serves as an accurate gauge of social welfare is one of the most widespread myths of our times. Even politicians who fight over everything else can always agree that the GDP must grow. Growth is good. It’s good for employment, it’s good for purchasing power, and it’s good for our government, giving it more… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share
Most of Mark Zuckerberg's income is just rent collected off the millions of picture and video posts that we give away daily for free.… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“To calculate the GDP, numerous data points have to be linked together and hundreds of wholly subjective choices made regarding what to count and what to ignore. In spite of this methodology, the GDP is never presented as anything less than hard science, whose fractional vacillations can make the difference between reelection and political annihilation. Yet this apparent precision is… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share
“Countless studies have shown that people who work less are more satisfied with their lives.37 In a recent poll conducted among working women, German… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“Precisely when we should be shouldering the historic task of investing this rich, safe, and healthy existence with meaning, we’ve buried utopia instead. There’s no new dream to replace it because we can’t imagine a better world than the one we’ve got. In fact, most people in wealthy countries believe children will actually be worse off than their parents.19 But… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share
Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act - it means that we don't need all those managers and CEO's, kings and… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
Poor people aren't making dumb decisions because they are dumb, but because they're living in a context in which anyone would make dumb decisions. — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
“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 just as… — Rutger Bregman Copy Share Image
