Utopia for Realists

How We Can Build the Ideal World

By: Rutger Bregman

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today.

After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way - and in some places it isn't.

Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders all over the world. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today.

Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history and beyond the traditional left-right divides as he champions ideas whose time has come.

Every progressive milestone of civilization - from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy - was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the 15-hour workweek, can become reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can, in fact, make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

©2017 Rutger Bregman (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Rutger Bregman is part of a new generation of thinkers who are suggesting exciting alternatives to the orthodoxies of the last 40 years. In this surprising, accessible, and often counterintuitive book, Bregman explores some brilliant but simple ideas for making a better world." (Brian Eno)

''It's a wonderful, well-written book, easily the crispest and least dry explanation of the research and history behind basic income as an idea I've seen in print." (Dylan Matthews)

We need a utopia

I loved this book so much, it made much of what had previously come to realize to fruition through the authors hard work and research over the years.

Wow

I’ve had discussions so many times hitting on all of these topics and the way Rutger lays them out is phenomenal.

Awesome Social Experiments Talk About

Told me about successful social experiments I'v never heard of! If you want learn something that isn't talked about regularly, listen to this book... The logic is sound but being backed by experiments is hopeful!

Eye opening

The author presents a very convincing argument for ideas I would have rejected out of hand before listening to the evidence he offers. I am still not sure he is correct but I am open to wait for the next shoe to drop

Ideas Are the Future

it is a WONDERFUL book with great ideas in it. strongly eecommend ti every one

Perfect blend of hope and fact

Utopia for Realists delivers. Bregman provides vital data with powerful storytelling of examples. You'll better understand what utopia actually looks like and how to achieve it. You'll also understand yourself better as well as those similar to you, and, most importantly, those you are opposed to. It doesn't mean utopia is a place without conflict. It does mean there's a lot to understand to get there.

Believe big lasting impactful positive change is impossible? This book is for you.
Believe big lasting impactful positive change is possible? This book is for you.
Hopeful for the future? This book is for you.
Wishing you could be hopeful for the future? This book is for you.

Helped me think beyond the status quo

I loved the vision—practical, ethical, inspiring, and world-changing. His case for a basic human income would save us huge amounts of taxpayer money was hard to refute

Brilliant

Intelligent, inspiring and surprising, Bregman has captured the history of ideas and current social and economic dilemmas superbly. His is a radical view and one that needs to be taken seriously if the world and it's populations are to survive.

FINALLY!!!

...Someone else who GETS it!!! The TRUTH & REALITY of the poverty and it's affects. A mandatory listen/read for EVERY single human on the planet.

great book and a must read for apologetic liberals

great job of articulating why dreaming big and expecting best from us and society is a worthwhile endeavour