Utopia for realists

There are three main ideas covered, surrounded with an introduction where the author states there's little difference between the left and right, and an epilogue that claims leftists are losing because they're boring. I'm inclined to think the author is a libertarian who thinks he's a liberal, but that's applying US labels to a Dane.

The three big ideas are: UBI, a 15 hr work week, and open borders. At this point, the only reason to not implement UBI is religion. I'm more conflicted about the 15hr work week. I think that a significant portion of the population would choose the take a second job. At least in America, we're simply too infected with the Puritan work ethic (meaning, you're evil if you aren't working.) And the third is unfeasible until we rid humanity of not just religion but religious impulses. (I, simplistically, think that nationalism is a religious impulses.)

Overall, I think that the author makes the exact same mistake that I do, by arguing about what is good by touting what is productive and efficient. In his defense, I don't think the title was Utopia for Idealists.

Rutger Bregman presents a series of stories and facts that speculate not only how a fairer, more rational and equitable the world could be, but also how could have been if at certain point history would have taken another turn. And by doing so, it questions the very essence of many of today's assumptions regarding workload, wellfare, borders, wages, poors... that neoliberal mantras makes us believe which constitute the foundations of capitalist societies. And what it is more important: it plants the seed of new different ideas that can lead to this utopia he often refers to as "The land of plenty" to be a reality not just for a few chosen ones, but for everyone.



Written in a very informative and colloquial language (although I felt sometimes to be structured in a weird manner with many jumps back and forth) it is aimed to everyone, without the need of knowing much about economics or politics. I found it to be highly recommended for anyone pursuing a better world or simply that want to understand how the current world works and over which premises it is based.



Apparently, a new edition was made after this one which slightly changes the order of some chapters and, according to the author it is the best edition so far: www.goodreads.com/questions/1040334-are-there-two-versions-of-this-book---with