Rutger Bregman

Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World[13] promotes a more productive and equitable life based on three core ideas which include a universal and unconditional basic income paid to everybody, a short workweek of fifteen hours, and open borders worldwide with the free exchange of citizens between all nations.[14] It was originally written as articles in Dutch for the online journal De Correspondent.[15]

In an interview with the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir in September 2017, Bregman said that "to move forward, a society needs dreams, not nightmares. Yet people are caught in the logic of fear. Whether it is Trump, Brexit or the last elections in Germany, they vote against the future and instead for solutions to replace it, believing the past was better based on a thoroughly mistaken view of the world: the world was worse before … Humanity is improving, conditions of life, work and health too. And it's time to open the windows of our minds to see it."[16]

Prior to the release of Utopia for Realists, Bregman had already published several books, including History of Progress, for which he was awarded the Belgian Liberales prize for best nonfiction book of 2013.[9][10][11]

In 2020, Bregman published Humankind: A Hopeful History, where he argues that humans are fundamentally mostly decent, and that more recognition of this view would likely be beneficial to everyone, partly as it would reduce excessive cynicism. For example, if society was less adamant on the view that humans are naturally lazy, there would be less reason to oppose the widespread introduction of poverty mitigation measures like basic income. The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing from the findings of history, economics, psychology, biology, anthropology and archaeology. Bregman's arguments include the assertion that in the state of nature debate, Rousseau, rather than Hobbes, was more correct about humanity's essential goodness.[17][18][19]

In an article for The Guardian, published in May 2020, Bregman describes the true story of a group of schoolboys from Tonga who were shipwrecked on the deserted island of ʻAta with few resources and no adult supervision. Bregman draws a parallel with the classic fiction novel Lord of the Flies; however, he highlights how much the real-life story does not turn out the same way as Lord of the Flies. Bregman was able to track down the captain of the fishing boat who rescued the boys in 1966; Peter Warner, son of Australian businessman Arthur Warner; and also one of the rescued individuals, Mano Totau. He interviewed Warner and got the full story of the boys' ordeal and their rescue, including the fact that Warner hired all of them as crew members for his fishing boat. In the case of the Tongan schoolboys, they immediately came up with a set of rules to govern their conduct and to ensure full cooperation. When one boy fell from a height and broke his leg, the others rushed to provide him with medical care; after they were rescued, medical professionals were impressed by the quality of the healed leg.[24]

Bregman approvingly cites a 1968 US proposal for a guaranteed minimum income, put forward by President Richard Nixon, among others.[31] He also cites a 1974–1979 Canadian federal government project in Dauphin, Manitoba, that temporarily eradicated poverty.[32] "The most popular study on the effects of basic income took place in Manitoba between 1974 and 1979 where everyone received a “Mincome” (minimum income) of $9,000 a year (by today's standards) from the government, no strings attached. Evelyn Forget, an economist and professor at the University of Manitoba, who looked over the data from the study says there was a 9 percent reduction in working hours among two main groups of citizens. But the reasons why give insight into how basic income can dramatically change the course of someone's life."[33]