The book is a useful practical tool in the task of political persuasion and in confronting the problems of poverty and overwork, which have arisen, Bregman points out, despite a growth in overall prosperity in the past 200 years.īregman’s main proposal on poverty reduction is universal basic income (UBI), or as he calls it, ‘giving free money to everyone’. However, the particularly impressive aspect of Utopia for Realists is that it puts forward good ideas – on poverty reduction, shortening working hours, incentivising work that is socially useful, and reconsidering what ‘work’ means in the context of automation – not by relying merely on ethical appeals but using fact-based economic arguments, and presented in plain language that everyone can understand. The overarching argument of the book is that we need utopias and that ideas can change the world.
The Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s impressive book, Utopia for Realists, has received a huge number of endorsements and media attention, and has sparked a renewed interest in the politics of work and poverty reduction, and particularly universal basic income. Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman.
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