Utopias for realists, Rutger Bregman
(back to books)
- Substrat: "Progress is the realisation of Utopias" (Oscar Wilde)
- without utopia technocracy remains, politics = problem management
- the past teaches us things could be different
- pilots/proof of concepts are how all progress begins
- group pressure can cause one to ignore what is in plain sight;
yet: one dissenting voice can change group behabviour
- utopias are usually attacked on three grounds
- futility (not possible), danger (too risky), perversity (leads to dystopia)
- utopia #1: working less
- solution to many problems: stress, aging population, emancipation, ...
- henry ford implemented 5 workdays; 1956: vp nixon spoke of 4 days
- couples worked 5-6 days in 1950s, today 7-8; still, working mothers today spend more
time with kids than stay-at-home moms in 1970s
- utopia #2: universal basic income
- people who experience scarcity prioritise short-term problems
- scarcity based on actual lack or excessive epectations
- poverty is not lack of character but lack of cash
- welfare trap: myriad of assistance programmes tax mental capacity
- how high is our gross domestic mental bandwith?
- president nixon was about to enact ubi bill in 1969
- utopia #3: GDP is flawed metric
- if you were the GDP, your ideal citizen would be a compulsive gambler with cancer
who's going through a draw-out divorce that he copes with by popping fistfuls of Prozac
and going berserk on Black Friday.
- Wikipedia (GDP contribution = 0) replaced Encyclopedia Britannica
- unpaid work (e.g. care, cooking) adds 37 or 75% (Hungary or UK)
- alternatives: Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) & Dashboard for Progress
- utopia #4: open borders
- before World War 1 borders existed mostly on paper
- countries could decide not to give immigrants right to assistance
- unchecked migration corrodes social cohesion
- bullshit jobs: jobs that even the people doing them admit are superfluous
- activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to social productivity
- crisis as moment of truth: opening for new ideas or place for old convictions