Utopia For Realists by Rutger Bregman
This book has been on my list of books to read for a long time. I finally got around to reading it this week. Utopia for Realists sets out the case for three things which I also endorse.
Universal basic income
A shorter workweek
Open borders
I don’t believe in utopias, but I do believe that these three things will bring prosperity and help make the world a better and fairer place. Rutger Bregman writes very convincingly, citing studies and real-world circumstances which support the suggestions he makes.
There were a few inconsistencies and eyebrow-raising moments, though. He repeats, for example, the old myth about Henry Ford giving his workers a pay rise so that they could buy his cars. Actually, the real reason was the turnover of his staff and the training time of the labour force. In certain circumstances, raising wages can reduce total labour costs. In any case, his workers wouldn’t have been able to afford his cars, anyway.
Another example is the case of Basic Income. Bregman says he is an admirer of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, but he neglects to mention Milton Friedman’s early endorsement of basic income, or to be more precise, a kind of basic income.
Rutger Bregman argues that immigration doesn’t harm social cohesion. He refers to Robert Putnam’s claim that immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. There are plenty of studies (here and here, for example) that show no effect of ethnic diversity on generalized trust, refuting Robert Putnam’s claim. Also, according to the work of Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, homogeneity does not seem to be a guarantee of a trusting society. But we need to mention that Rutnam’s work is based exclusively on the United States and all of his examples are drawn from the United States experience, whereas most of all the other works are based on European countries.
Rutger Bregman argues that immigration doesn’t harm social cohesion. He refers to Robert Putnam’s claim that immigration and ethnic diversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital. There are plenty of studies (here and here, for example) that show no effect of ethnic diversity on generalized trust, refuting Robert Putnam’s claim. And according to the work of Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, homogeneity does not seem to be a guarantee of a trusting society. But we need to mention here that Rutnam’s work is based exclusively on the United States and all of his examples are drawn from the United States experience, whereas most of all the other works are based on European countries.
Although Bregman argues that immigration is the most powerful tool for fighting poverty, he correctly says that opening our borders is not something we can do overnight. “Unchecked migration would certainly corrode social cohesion in the Land of Plenty.” But migration, however disruptive, is one of the most powerful drivers of progress. The United States of America is, as John F. Kennedy called it, “a nation of immigrants.
Despite the few inconsistencies, Utopia for Realists is an excellent read. Bregman challenges us to think anew how we want to live and in what kind of world we want to live in.