http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-rutger-bregman/8883962

This is a podcast that I highly recommend

Rutger Bregman is a 28-year-old Dutch Historian  whose book, Utopia for Realists, has taken Holland by storm and could yet revitalise progressive thought around the globe. His solutions are quite simple and staunchly set against current trends.

Bregman is calling for new thinking about the kind of world we want to live in.

Universal Basic Income 

We should institute a universal basic income for everyone that covers minimum living expenses – say around £12,000 a year; the working week should be shortened to 15 hours; borders should be opened and migrants allowed to move wherever they choose.

Ideas like a basic income for everyone, with no strings attached. Free apartments for the homeless, fewer hours at work, and more job-sharing.

He quotes research which indicates how such schemes actually save governments money.

On Globalism and Connection of the Planet 

He reminds us on the incredible improvements in life expectancy, health, wealth, education and freedoms that have been achieved in the last couple of centuries.

There is less poverty, less child mortality, people living longer, better, connecting, democracy, less violence, equal rights for women and so much more!!

He credits globalisation with lifting 700 million Chinese out of extreme poverty

If a country is in good shape – why should their be illegal immigrants ? 

Zoomout!!! 

What’s our world gonna look like on 2050? Or 2100?

We are a global village – and the world is getting smaller with communication and connection.

You can be in your hut in africa and be as productive as Someone at a desk in Martin Place 

What will be the biggest challenge – clearly borders !!!!

Some classic gems 

• People are basically nice

• The banality of nice – Laws made for the 1pc who are not so nice 

• Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s s lack of cash .”

• “Let’s help people , educate them, upskill them . “

• “Change the mindset of having to work in a job that you don’t like to earn a living to live and do things that you live in your spare time .”

• Ideas of the future come from the fringes – not the mainstream 

Hmmmmm

Could this young Dutchman, hailed as a visionary, galvanise the left with his radical plan for a borderless future in which we are all paid for working less?

 

Posted on July 8, 2018