Simple recipe for fixing the world: give everyone money, rather than programs and social services; slash the work week to give people time for things that matter; and open all borders. Easy right?

Before you ask, "What is this guy smoking?" give hm a listen. Bregman points out that by the standards of even a century ago, we've already achieved the means of utopia: plentiful year round food supplies; temperature controlled environments, simple cures for diseases which ravaged our ancestors. Of course these benefits have not spread equally across the world, and even in wealthy countries we have plenty of stuff but are working ourselves crazy.

Bregman's heavily researched yet accessible argument is that we waste enormous amounts of resources on social service programs, border security and "******** jobs" which merely move money around but don't create wealth or solve important problems. He further notes that most of our objections to his utopian schemes are based on prejudice and preconceptions but little actual evidence. Doesn't giving poor people money for nothing or a shorter work week mean they'll sit around drinking all day? Nope; several experiments on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) have shown just the opposite. Won't poor people make stupid purchases like drugs and unhealthy food with the money if they aren't regulated? Again no: UBI recipients in various countries and social systems tended to make strategic investments in equipment and transportation and housing. Won't open borders depress wages and lead to mass unemployment and crime? Again wrong: immigration has no net effect on wages, and can actually increase jobs since immigrants are also consumers. (Fun fact: increased policing of the U.S./Mexico border has led to MORE undocumented immigrants living permanently in the Us...because going back and forth to Mexico is so difficult.)

Bregman comes down hard on the nonprofit, foreign aid and development industries, ("Why send over expensive white folks in SUVs when we can simply hand over their salaries to the poor?" p. 31) noting there is zero evidence that such aid actually accomplishes anything. He is also a harsh critic of the "underdog socialists" who react emotionally to injustice but are incapable of articulating any exciting new ideas. "And, too often, it seems as if those on the left actually like losing. As if all the failure, the doom, and the atrocities manly serve to prove they were right all along...Sadly the underdog socialist has forgotten that the story of the left ought to be a narrative of hope and progress. The greatest sin of the academic left is that it has become fundamentally aristocratic, writing in bizarre jargon that makes simple matters dazzlingly complex...What we need is a narrative that speaks to millions of ordinary people". ( p 258)

There are some obvious flaws with Bregman's prescription: if everyone is getting a certain income and thus has more purchasing power it seems likely that prices would rise accordingly. And, as the proponents for Universal Basic Services point out, without a strong communal network for health care, education, sanitation etc. a private income will only go so far. There's also the simple factor of greed: the current system works pretty well for a small entrenched group of powerful people, and it won't be easy to convince them to release their grip, (Bregman recommends high taxation of financial transfers to encourage smart people to go into education, science and research rather than hedge funds).

But like I said, give him a listen. There are young, progressive Congressional leaders: (Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar, Underwood) who are speaking his language. It's time for cranky underdog socialists like myself to give them space.

Utopia for Realists - Likewise Book Reviews

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