---
title: "164 Rutger Bregman Quotes - Famous Journalist"
description: "Rutger Bregman quotes explore immigration, basic income, and work‑week effects on community."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/007/rutger-bregman-2463_inequality_inequality-the-countries-with-the-bigges_2956211.jpg"
---

# Rutger Bregman

(1988)   Journalist

 **164** quotes in **478** categories

Rutger Bregman points out that a small rise in immigration could add billions to the world’s poor. He says basic income does more than share money; it also shifts power to workers like cleaners. He notes that countries with the shortest workweeks tend to have the most volunteers and the strongest community ties.

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Rutger Bregman is a journalist.

## Quick Facts About Rutger Bregman

Born April 26, 1988

Profession Journalist

## About Rutger Bregman

Rutger Christiaan Bregman is a Dutch journalist, writer, and historian.

##  Quotes by Rutger Bregman

> [“Inequality? The countries with the biggest disparities in wealth are precisely those with the longest workweeks.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/inequality-the-countries-with-the-biggest-disparities-in-wealth-are/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Inequality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inequality/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/007/rutger-bregman-2463_inequality_inequality-the-countries-with-the-bigges_2956211.jpg)

> [One of the basic lessons of history is that things can be different.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/one-of-the-basic-lessons-of-history-is-that-things-can-be-different/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e4/rutger-bregman-2463_be-different_one-of-the-basic-lessons-of-history-is-t_2880607.jpg)

> [History will tell you that borders are not inevitable, they hardly existed at the end of the 19th century.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/history-will-tell-you-that-borders-are-not-inevitable-they-hardly/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/328/rutger-bregman-2463_19th-century_history-will-tell-you-that-borders-are-n_2955229.jpg)

> [Maybe utopianism is my form of religion in a world without God.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/maybe-utopianism-is-my-form-of-religion-in-a-world-without-god/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/294/rutger-bregman-2463_form_maybe-utopianism-is-my-form-of-religion_728063.jpg)

> [“people living in unequal societies spend more time worrying about how others see them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/people-living-in-unequal-societies-spend-more-time-worrying-about-how/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Community](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/community/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d23/rutger-bregman-2463_community_people-living-in-unequal-societies-spend_2821198.jpg)

> [A Dutchman can't easily get away from cheese. I was dropped into a cauldron of cheese when I was young.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/a-dutchman-can-t-easily-get-away-from-cheese-i-was-dropped-into-a/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/032/rutger-bregman-2463_away_a-dutchman-can-t-easily-get-away-from-ch_2011020.jpg)

> [I think it's rational to assume the best in other people because most people are pretty decent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/i-think-it-s-rational-to-assume-the-best-in-other-people-because-most/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/81f/rutger-bregman-2463_best_i-think-it-s-rational-to-assume-the-best_1418175.jpg)

> [No one is suggesting societies the world over should implement an expensive basic income system in one stroke.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/no-one-is-suggesting-societies-the-world-over-should-implement-an/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5ff/rutger-bregman-2463_expensive_no-one-is-suggesting-societies-the-world_2014295.jpg)

> [“Borders are the single biggest cause of discrimination in all of world history. Inequality gaps between people living in the same country…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/borders-are-the-single-biggest-cause-of-discrimination-in-all-of-2/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Borders](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/borders/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f79/rutger-bregman-2463_borders_borders-are-the-single-biggest-cause-of_2732694.jpg)

> [In the past 20 years scientists from very diverse disciplines - anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, psychologists - have all moved to a much…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/in-the-past-20-years-scientists-from-very-diverse-disciplines/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/743/rutger-bregman-2463_discipline_in-the-past-20-years-scientists-from-ver_2135982.jpg)

> [“Researchers at Yale University have shown that educated people are more unshakable in their convictions than anybody.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/researchers-at-yale-university-have-shown-that-educated-people-are/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Educated people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/educated-people/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/660/rutger-bregman-2463_educated-people_researchers-at-yale-university-have-show_1913122.jpg)

> [Government isn't there just to administer life support to failing markets. Without the government, many of those markets would not even exist.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/government-isn-t-there-just-to-administer-life-support-to-failing/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c28/rutger-bregman-2463_exist_government-isn-t-there-just-to-administe_641267.jpg)

> [The world view of the underdog socialist is encapsulated in the notion that the establishment has mastered the game of reason, judgment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/the-world-view-of-the-underdog-socialist-is-encapsulated-in-the/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Game](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/game/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c0e/rutger-bregman-2463_game_the-world-view-of-the-underdog-socialist_1958325.jpg)

> [Instead of a universal basic income, we could have a basic income guarantee. Or, as economists prefer to call it, a negative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/instead-of-a-universal-basic-income-we-could-have-a-basic-income/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Economists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economists/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/44a/rutger-bregman-2463_economists_instead-of-a-universal-basic-income-we-c_1049638.jpg)

> [Children are born as emphatic and compassionate beings - so you don't have to teach them generosity, it's in their nature to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/children-are-born-as-emphatic-and-compassionate-beings-so-you-don-t/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/523/rutger-bregman-2463_born_children-are-born-as-emphatic-and-compas_1966298.jpg)

> [A lot of great things are going on. In many ways, the past 30 years have been the best in world history.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/a-lot-of-great-things-are-going-on-in-many-ways-the-past-30-years/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b25/rutger-bregman-2463_best_a-lot-of-great-things-are-going-on-in-ma_2517683.jpg)

> [Since long workdays lead to more errors, shorter workdays could reduce accidents. Overtime is deadly. Tired surgeons have been found to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/since-long-workdays-lead-to-more-errors-shorter-workdays-could-reduce/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Accidents](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accidents/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3cc/rutger-bregman-2463_accidents_since-long-workdays-lead-to-more-errors_2040375.jpg)

> [I've been thinking that school, or certainly the traditional English public school model, is like a prison, in that you can't get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/i-ve-been-thinking-that-school-or-certainly-the-traditional-english/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Bullying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bullying/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f7b/rutger-bregman-2463_bullying_i-ve-been-thinking-that-school-or-certai_1064012.jpg)

> [If I say most people are pretty decent that may sound nice and warm but actually it's really radical and subversive and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/if-i-say-most-people-are-pretty-decent-that-may-sound-nice-and-warm/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Anarchists](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchists/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0e4/rutger-bregman-2463_anarchists_if-i-say-most-people-are-pretty-decent-t_820471.jpg)

> [It's actually more than 700 case studies that show that, especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/it-s-actually-more-than-700-case-studies-that-show-that-especially-in/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Altruism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/altruism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/54c/rutger-bregman-2463_altruism_it-s-actually-more-than-700-case-studies_1830980.jpg)

> [“Recently, the International Monetary Fund published a report which revealed that too much inequality even inhibits economic growth.22 Perhaps the most fascinating…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/recently-the-international-monetary-fund-published-a-report-which-2/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Economic growth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economic-growth/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/558/rutger-bregman-2463_economic-growth_recently-the-international-monetary-fund_948878.jpg)

> [“Productive women, seniors, or immigrants won’t displace men, young adults, or hardworking citizens from their jobs. In fact, they create more employment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/productive-women-seniors-or-immigrants-won-t-displace-men-young/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Workforce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/workforce/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/335/rutger-bregman-2463_workforce_productive-women-seniors-or-immigrants-w_3175938.jpg)

> [Well, the news is mostly about things that go wrong, right? It's about sensationalist incidents that happened today, instead of things that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/well-the-news-is-mostly-about-things-that-go-wrong-right-it-s-about/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[End of the day](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/end-of-the-day/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/650/rutger-bregman-2463_end-of-the-day_well-the-news-is-mostly-about-things-tha_3141469.jpg)

> [“If there’s one thing that we capitalists have in common with the communists of old, it’s a pathological obsession with gainful employment.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/if-there-s-one-thing-that-we-capitalists-have-in-common-with-the/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Capitalism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capitalism/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/3f6/rutger-bregman-2463_capitalism_if-there-s-one-thing-that-we-capitalists_2938879.jpg)

> [“Anybody who forays outside the “Overton window” faces a rocky road. He or she will quickly be branded as “unrealistic” or “unreasonable”…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/anybody-who-forays-outside-the-overton-window-faces-a-rocky-road-he/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Different opinions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/different-opinions/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e9e/rutger-bregman-2463_different-opinions_anybody-who-forays-outside-the-overton-w_616116.jpg)

> [“We need a new lodestar, a new map of the world that once again includes a distant, uncharted continent – “Utopia.” By…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/we-need-a-new-lodestar-a-new-map-of-the-world-that-once-again/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Dreams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dreams/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/681/rutger-bregman-2463_dreams_we-need-a-new-lodestar-a-new-map-of-the_999186.jpg)

> [“It was Joseph Overton, an American lawyer, who first explained the mechanisms of uppercase Politics in the 1990s. He began with a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/it-was-joseph-overton-an-american-lawyer-who-first-explained-the/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Good ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/good-ideas/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4be/rutger-bregman-2463_good-ideas_it-was-joseph-overton-an-american-lawyer_3040301.jpg)

> [“Precisely when we should be shouldering the historic task of investing this rich, safe, and healthy existence with meaning, we’ve buried utopia…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/precisely-when-we-should-be-shouldering-the-historic-task-of/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Better world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/better-world/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dc2/rutger-bregman-2463_better-world_precisely-when-we-should-be-shouldering_176165.jpg)

> [“Borders are the single biggest cause of discrimination in all of world history. Inequality gaps between people living in the same country…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/borders-are-the-single-biggest-cause-of-discrimination-in-all-of/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Filthy rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/filthy-rich/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b23/rutger-bregman-2463_history_borders-are-the-single-biggest-cause-of_1308735.jpg)

> [“This puts the choice in the hands of the poor,” says Michael Faye, founder of GiveDirectly, the organization behind Bernard’s windfall. “And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/this-puts-the-choice-in-the-hands-of-the-poor-says-michael-faye/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Poor people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poor-people/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1cf/rutger-bregman-2463_poor-people_this-puts-the-choice-in-the-hands-of-the_1128264.jpg)

> [“When Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15, 2008, and inaugurated the biggest crisis since the 1930s, there were no real alternatives to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/when-lehman-brothers-collapsed-on-september-15-2008-and-inaugurated-2/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Free speech](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/free-speech/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be9/rutger-bregman-2463_free-speech_when-lehman-brothers-collapsed-on-septem_920117.jpg)

> [“Or take school attendance. Everybody seems to have different ideas on how to raise it. We should pay for uniforms. Advance school…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/or-take-school-attendance-everybody-seems-to-have-different-ideas-on/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Different ideas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/different-ideas/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4f5/rutger-bregman-2463_different-ideas_or-take-school-attendance-everybody-seem_2920192.jpg)

> [“The idea that the GDP still serves as an accurate gauge of social welfare is one of the most widespread myths of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/the-idea-that-the-gdp-still-serves-as-an-accurate-gauge-of-social/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e62/rutger-bregman-2463_hard-to-believe_the-idea-that-the-gdp-still-serves-as-an_110447.jpg)

> [“When Lehman Brothers collapsed on September 15, 2008, and inaugurated the biggest crisis since the 1930s, there were no real alternatives to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/when-lehman-brothers-collapsed-on-september-15-2008-and-inaugurated/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a0/rutger-bregman-2463_every-day_when-lehman-brothers-collapsed-on-septem_21132.jpg)

> [“This is nothing less than a whole new approach to economics. The randomistas don’t think in terms of models. They don’t believe…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/this-is-nothing-less-than-a-whole-new-approach-to-economics-the/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Difficult time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/difficult-time/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/71a/rutger-bregman-2463_difficult-time_this-is-nothing-less-than-a-whole-new-ap_1193586.jpg)

> [“The great milestones of civilization always have the whiff of utopia about them at first. According to renowned sociologist Albert Hirschman, utopias…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/the-great-milestones-of-civilization-always-have-the-whiff-of-utopia/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Long ago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-ago/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b59/rutger-bregman-2463_long-ago_the-great-milestones-of-civilization-alw_2026208.jpg)

> [“Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible mission when U.S. President Herbert Hoover was tasked with beating back the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seemed-an-impossible-mission-when/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Business](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/business/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/efd/rutger-bregman-2463_business_yet-just-eighty-years-ago-it-still-seeme_2878002.jpg)

> [“If there’s one place, then, where we can intervene in a way that will pay dividends for society down the road, it’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/if-there-s-one-place-then-where-we-can-intervene-in-a-way-that-will/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Developing countries](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/developing-countries/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2a0/rutger-bregman-2463_developing-countries_if-there-s-one-place-then-where-we-can-i_1115415.jpg)

> [“It takes talent, ambition, and brains. And the banking world is brimming with clever minds. “The genius of the great speculative investors…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/it-takes-talent-ambition-and-brains-and-the-banking-world-is-brimming/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Investing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/investing/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6a5/rutger-bregman-2463_investing_it-takes-talent-ambition-and-brains-and_1477807.jpg)

> [“Whereas public sector services often bring a plethora of hidden benefits, the private sector is riddled with hidden costs. “We can afford…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rutger-bregman/whereas-public-sector-services-often-bring-a-plethora-of-hidden/)

[Rutger Bregman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rutger-bregman/)

[Economics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economics/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dff/rutger-bregman-2463_economics_whereas-public-sector-services-often-bri_1513010.jpg)

## Rutger Bregman by topic

[People (17)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/rutger-bregman/) [Money (15)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/money/rutger-bregman/) [History (13)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/rutger-bregman/) [World (12)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/world/rutger-bregman/) [Life (12)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/rutger-bregman/) [Inequality (11)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inequality/rutger-bregman/) [Work (10)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/work/rutger-bregman/) [Poverty (10)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poverty/rutger-bregman/) [Politics (10)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/politics/rutger-bregman/) [Education (10)](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/rutger-bregman/)

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                        "text": "The world view of the underdog socialist is encapsulated in the notion that the establishment has mastered the game of reason, judgment and statistics, leaving the left with emotion. Its heart is in the right place.",
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                        "text": "I've been thinking that school, or certainly the traditional English public school model, is like a prison, in that you can't get out and it is hierarchical. As a result they have a lot of bullying. On the other hand if you mix ages and academic ability this is less of a problem.",
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                        "text": "If I say most people are pretty decent that may sound nice and warm but actually it's really radical and subversive and that's why, all throughout history, those who have advocated a more hopeful view of human nature - often the anarchists - have been persecuted.",
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                        "text": "It's actually more than 700 case studies that show that, especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation. This happens again and again after natural disasters, after earthquakes and after floodings.",
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                        "text": "“Recently, the International Monetary Fund published a report which revealed that too much inequality even inhibits economic growth.22 Perhaps the most fascinating finding, however, is that even rich people suffer when inequality becomes too great. They, too, become more prone to depression, suspicion, and myriad other social difficulties.”",
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                        "text": "“Productive women, seniors, or immigrants won’t displace men, young adults, or hardworking citizens from their jobs. In fact, they create more employment opportunities. A bigger workforce means more consumption, more demand, more jobs.”",
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                        "text": "Well, the news is mostly about things that go wrong, right? It's about sensationalist incidents that happened today, instead of things that happen every day. So if you watch and follow a lot of the news, at the end of the day, you know exactly how the world is not working.",
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                        "text": "“If there’s one thing that we capitalists have in common with the communists of old, it’s a pathological obsession with gainful employment. Just as Soviet-era shops employed “three clerks to sell a piece of meat,” we’ll force benefit claimants to perform pointless tasks, even if it bankrupts us.”",
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                        "text": "“Anybody who forays outside the “Overton window” faces a rocky road. He or she will quickly be branded as “unrealistic” or “unreasonable” by the media, the fearsome gatekeepers of the window. Television, for example, offers little time or space to present fundamentally different opinions. Instead, talk shows feed us an endless merry-go-round of the same people saying the same things. And yet, despite all this, a society can change completely in a few decades. The Overton window can shift. A classic strategy for achieving this is to proclaim ideas so shocking and subversive that anything less radical suddenly sounds sensible. In other words, to make the radical reasonable, you merely have to stretch the bounds of the radical.”",
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                        "text": "“We need a new lodestar, a new map of the world that once again includes a distant, uncharted continent – “Utopia.” By this I don’t mean the rigid blueprints that utopian fanatics try to shove down our throats with their theocracies or their five-year plans – they only subordinate real people to fervent dreams. Consider this: The word utopia means both “good place” and “no place.” What we need are alternative horizons that spark the imagination. And I do mean horizons in the plural; conflicting utopias are the lifeblood of democracy, after all.”",
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                        "text": "“It was Joseph Overton, an American lawyer, who first explained the mechanisms of uppercase Politics in the 1990s. He began with a simple question: Why is it that so many good ideas don’t get taken seriously? Overton realized that politicians, provided they want to be reelected, can’t permit themselves viewpoints that are seen as too extreme. In order to hold power, they have to keep their ideas within the margins of what’s acceptable. This window of acceptability is populated by schemes that are rubber-stamped by the experts, tallied up by statistics services, and have good odds of making it into the law books.”",
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                        "text": "“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 the real crisis of our times, of my generation, is not that we don’t have it good, or even that we might be worse off later on. No, the real crisis is that we can’t come up with anything better.”",
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                        "text": "“Borders are the single biggest cause of discrimination in all of world history. Inequality gaps between people living in the same country are nothing in comparison to those between separated global citizenries. Today, the richest 8% earn half of all the world’s income,24 and the richest 1% own more than half of all wealth.25 The poorest billion people account for just 1% of all consumption; the richest billion, 72%.26 From an international perspective, the inhabitants of the Land of Plenty aren’t merely rich, but filthy rich. A person living at the poverty line in the U.S. belongs to the richest 14% of the world population; someone earning a median wage belongs to the richest 4%.”",
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                        "text": "“This puts the choice in the hands of the poor,” says Michael Faye, founder of GiveDirectly, the organization behind Bernard’s windfall. “And the truth is, I don’t think I have a very good sense of what the poor need.”7 Faye doesn’t give people fish, or even teach them to fish. He gives them cash, in the conviction that the real experts on what poor people need are the poor people themselves. When I asked him why there are so few peppy videos or pictures on GiveDirectly’s website, Faye explained that he doesn’t want to play on emotions too much. “Our data are hard enough.” He’s right: According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, GiveDirectly’s cash grants spur a lasting rise in incomes (up 38% from before the infusion) and also boost homeownership and possession of livestock (up 58%), while reducing the number of days that children go hungry by 42%. Furthermore,”",
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                        "text": "“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 pragmatism. Naturally, we should still take pride in the liberty that generations before us fought for and won. But the question is, what is the value of free speech when we no longer have anything worthwhile to say? What’s the point of freedom of association when we no longer feel any sense of affiliation? What purpose does freedom of religion serve when we no longer believe in anything?”",
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                        "text": "“Or take school attendance. Everybody seems to have different ideas on how to raise it. We should pay for uniforms. Advance school fees on credit. Offer free meals. Install toilets. Raise public awareness of the value of education. Hire more teachers. And on and on. All of these suggestions sound perfectly logical. Thanks to RCTs, however, we know that $100 worth of free meals translates into an additional 2.8 years of educational attainment – three times as much as free uniforms. Speaking of proven impact, deworming children with intestinal complaints has been shown to yield 2.9 years of additional schooling for the absurdly small investment of $10 worth of treatment. No armchair philosopher could have predicted that, but since this finding was revealed, tens of millions of children have been dewormed.”",
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                        "text": "“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 to spend. Modern journalism would be all but lost without the GDP, wielding the latest national growth figures as a kind of government report card. A shrinking GDP spells recession and, if it really shrivels, depression. In fact, the GDP offers pretty much everything a journalist could want: hard figures, issued at regular intervals, and the chance to quote experts. Most importantly, the GDP offers a clear benchmark. Is the government doing its job? How do we as a country stack up? Has life gotten a little better? Never fear, we have the latest figures on the GDP, and they’ll tell us everything we need to know. Given our obsession with it, it’s hard to believe that just eighty years ago the GDP didn’t even exist.”",
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                        "text": "“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 pragmatism. Naturally, we should still take pride in the liberty that generations before us fought for and won. But the question is, what is the value of free speech when we no longer have anything worthwhile to say? What’s the point of freedom of association when we no longer feel any sense of affiliation? What purpose does freedom of religion serve when we no longer believe in anything? On the one hand, the world is still getting richer, safer, and healthier. Every day, more and more people are arriving in Cockaigne. That’s a huge triumph. On the other hand, it’s high time that we, the inhabitants of the Land of Plenty, staked out a new utopia. Let’s rehoist the sails. “Progress is the realisation of Utopias,” Oscar Wilde wrote many years ago.24 A fifteen-hour workweek, universal basic income, and a world without borders … They’re all crazy dreams – but for how much longer?”",
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                        "text": "“This is nothing less than a whole new approach to economics. The randomistas don’t think in terms of models. They don’t believe humans are rational actors. Instead, they assume we are quixotic creatures, sometimes foolish and sometimes astute, and by turns afraid, altruistic, and self-centered. And this approach appears to yield considerably better results. So why did it take so long to figure this out? Well, several reasons. Doing randomized controlled trials in poverty-stricken countries is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Often, local organizations are less than eager to cooperate, not least because they’re worried the findings will prove them ineffective. Take the case of microcredit. Development aid trends come and go, from “good governance” to “education” to the ill-fated “microcredit” at the start of this century. Microcredit’s reckoning came in the form of our old friend Esther Duflo, who set up a fatal RCT in Hyderabad, India, and demonstrated that, all the heartwarming anecdotes notwithstanding, there is no hard evidence that microcredit is effective at combating poverty and illness.13 Handing out cash works way better. As it happens, cash handouts may be the most extensively studied anti-poverty method around. RCTs across the globe have shown that over both the long and short term and on both a large and small scale, cash transfers are an extremely successful and efficient tool.14”",
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                        "text": "“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 (it will degenerate into dystopia). But Hirschman also wrote that almost as soon as a utopia becomes a reality, it often comes to be seen as utterly commonplace. Not so very long ago, democracy still seemed a glorious utopia. Many a great mind, from the philosopher Plato (427–347 B.C.) to the statesman Edmund Burke (1729–97), warned that democracy was futile (the masses were too foolish to handle it), dangerous (majority rule would be akin to playing with fire), and perverse (the “general interest” would soon be corrupted by the interests of some crafty general or other). Compare this with the arguments against basic income. It’s supposedly futile because we can’t pay for it, dangerous because people would quit working, and perverse because ultimately a minority would end up having to toil harder to support the majority.”",
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                        "text": "“Yet just eighty years ago it still seemed an impossible mission when U.S. President Herbert Hoover was tasked with beating back the Great Depression with only a mixed bag of numbers, ranging from share values to the price of iron to the volume of road transport. Even his most important metric – the “blast-furnace index” – was little more than an unwieldy construct that attempted to pin down production levels in the steel industry. If you had asked Hoover how “the economy” was doing, he would have given you a puzzled look. Not only because this wasn’t among the numbers in his bag, but because he would have had no notion of our modern understanding of the word “economy.” “Economy” isn’t really a thing, after all – it’s an idea, and that idea had yet to be invented. In 1931, Congress called together the country’s leading statisticians and found them unable to answer even the most basic questions about the state of the nation. That something was fundamentally wrong seemed evident, but their last reliable figures dated from 1929. It was obvious that the homeless population was growing and that companies were going bankrupt left and right, but as to the actual extent of the problem, nobody knew. A few months earlier, President Hoover had dispatched a number of Commerce Department employees around the country to report on the situation. They returned with mainly anecdotal evidence that aligned with Hoover’s own belief that economic recovery was just around the bend. Congress wasn’t reassured, however. In 1932, it appointed a brilliant young Russian professor by the name of Simon Kuznets to answer a simple question: How much stuff can we make? Over the next few years, Kuznets laid the foundations of what would later become the GDP. His”",
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                        "text": "“If there’s one place, then, where we can intervene in a way that will pay dividends for society down the road, it’s in the classroom. Yet that’s barely happening. All the big debates in education are about format. About delivery. About didactics. Education is consistently presented as a means of adaptation – as a lubricant to help you glide more effortlessly through life. On the education conference circuit, an endless parade of trend watchers prophesy about the future and essential twenty-first-century skills, the buzzwords being “creative,” “adaptable,” and “flexible.” The focus, invariably, is on competencies, not values. On didactics, not ideals. On “problem-solving ability,” but not which problems need solving. Invariably, it all revolves around the question: Which knowledge and skills do today’s students need to get hired in tomorrow’s job market – the market of 2030? Which is precisely the wrong question. In 2030, there will likely be a high demand for savvy accountants untroubled by a conscience. If current trends hold, countries like Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland will become even bigger tax havens, enabling multinationals to dodge taxes even more effectively, leaving developing countries with an even shorter end of the stick. If the aim of education is to roll with these kinds of trends rather than upend them, then egotism is set to be the quintessential twenty-first-century skill. Not”",
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                        "text": "“It takes talent, ambition, and brains. And the banking world is brimming with clever minds. “The genius of the great speculative investors is to see what others do not, or to see it earlier,” explains the economist Roger Bootle. “This is a skill. But so is the ability to stand on tiptoe, balancing on one leg, while holding a pot of tea above your head, without spillage.”12 In other words, the fact that something is difficult does not automatically make it valuable. In recent decades those clever minds have concocted all manner of complex financial products that don’t create wealth, but destroy it. These products are, essentially, like a tax on the rest of the population. Who do you think is paying for all those custom-tailored suits, sprawling mansions, and luxury yachts? If bankers aren’t generating the underlying value themselves, then it has to come from somewhere – or someone – else. The government isn’t the only one redistributing wealth. The financial sector does it, too, but without a democratic mandate.”",
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                        "text": "“Whereas public sector services often bring a plethora of hidden benefits, the private sector is riddled with hidden costs. “We can afford to pay more for the services we need – chiefly healthcare and education,” Baumol writes. “What we may not be able to afford are the consequences of falling costs.” You may brush this aside with the argument that such “externalities” can’t simply be quantified because they involve too many subjective assumptions, but that’s precisely the point. “Value” and “productivity” cannot be expressed in objective figures, even if we pretend the opposite: “We have a high graduation rate, therefore we offer a good education” – “Our doctors are focused and efficient, therefore we provide good care” – “We have a high publication rate, therefore we are an excellent university” – “We have a high audience share, therefore we are producing good television” – “The economy is growing, therefore our country is doing fine…” The targets of our performance-driven society are no less absurd than the five-year plans of the former U.S.S.R. To found our political system on production figures is to turn the good life into a spreadsheet. As the writer Kevin Kelly says, “Productivity is for robots. Humans excel at wasting time, experimenting, playing, creating, and exploring.”",
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