Quotes by Rutger Bregman - Page 2

Year after year, politicians have drafted huge piles of legislation on the assumption that most people are not good. And we know the consequences of that policy: inequality, loneliness and mistrust.
Rutger Bregman /
Assumption
Inequality
Legislation
Loneliness
Mistrust
Drafted
Piles
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Societies tend to presume that poor people are unable to handle money. If they had any, people reason, the poor and homeless would probably spend it on fast food and cheap beer, not on fruit or education.
Rutger Bregman /
Beer
Fast Food
Fruit
Handle
Homeless
Poor
Poor People
Cheap
Fast
Spend
Societies
Presume
Tend
Unable
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We so often tend to think our democracies are ruled by procedures and laws, but they are also governed by implicit rules and assumptions and one of them is the ability to feel shame - that you can be shamed.
Rutger Bregman /
Democracy
Implicit
Procedures
Assumptions
Governed
Ruled
Shamed
Tend
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While it won't solve all the world's ills - and ideas such as a rent cap and more social housing are necessary in places where housing is scarce - a basic income would work like venture capital for the people.
Rutger Bregman /
Housing
Ideas
Income
Scarce
Venture
Venture Capital
Work World People
Basic
Cap
For The People
Ills
Places
Rent
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We'll all remember 2020 as an historic year. And for decades, people will be able to say, remember 2020. Remember when things were really tough. Who did we rely on? I think that could impact a whole generation.
Rutger Bregman /
Decades
Historic
Impact
Rely
Remember When
Tough
Remember People Will
Generation
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Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act - it means that we don't need all those managers and CEO's, kings and generals. That we can trust people to govern themselves and make their own decisions.
Rutger Bregman /
Ceo
Managers
Revolutionary
Believing
Generals
Govern
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Around the year 2000, countries such as France, the Netherlands and the US were already five times as wealthy as in 1930. Yet nowadays our biggest challenges are not leisure and boredom, but stress and uncertainty.
Rutger Bregman /
Boredom
Leisure
Netherlands
Stress
Uncertainty
Wealthy
Biggest Challenges
Nowadays
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The world view of the underdog socialist is encapsulated in the notion that the establishment has mastered the game of reason, judgment and statistics, leaving the left with emotion. Its heart is in the right place.
Rutger Bregman /
Judgment
Notion
Right Place
Socialist
Statistics
Underdog
World View
Mastered
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But the underdog socialists' biggest problem isn't that they are wrong. They are not. Their biggest problem is that they're dull. Dull as a doorknob. They've got no story to tell; nor even the language to convey it in.
Rutger Bregman /
Dull
Underdog
Biggest Problem
Convey
Socialists
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Remember: real politics isn't about figureheads and seats in parliament. Real politics is about ideas. And there can be no doubt regarding the extreme ideas that have been gaining ground in the Netherlands for decades.
Rutger Bregman /
Decades
Doubt
Netherlands
No Doubt
Parliament
Seats
Extreme
Gaining
Ground
Regarding
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Actually, it is precisely in overworked countries like Japan, England and the US that people watch an absurd amount of television. Up to four hours a day in England, which adds up to nine years over an average lifetime.
Rutger Bregman /
Absurd
Japan
Lifetime
Adds
Precisely
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New ideas rarely come from the moderate parties in The Hague or Washington, in Brussels or Westminster. The world's political centres are not the breeding ground for true change, but rather where it comes home to roost.
Rutger Bregman /
Breeding
Brussels
New Ideas
Roost
Westminster
Washington
Hague
Moderate
Parties
Rarely
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Private companies mostly manufacture medications that resemble what we've already got. They get it patented and, with a hefty dose of marketing, a legion of lawyers, and a strong lobby, can live off the profits for years.
Rutger Bregman /
Dose
Legion
Lobby
Manufacture
Medications
Patented
Profits
Resemble
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From Scotland to India, and from Silicon Valley to Kenya, policymakers all over the world have become interested in basic income as an answer to poverty, unemployment and the bureaucratic behemoth of the modern welfare state.
Rutger Bregman /
Scotland
Silicon
Silicon Valley
Unemployment
Welfare
Welfare State
Bureaucratic
Policymakers
Valley
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Only the work that generates money is allowed to count toward GDP. Little wonder, then, that we have organized education around feeding as many people as possible in bite-size flexible parcels into the employment establishment.
Rutger Bregman /
Employment
Establishment
Feeding
Flexible
Gdp
Organized
Education Work Money
Count
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Literally every single sliver of technology that makes the iPhone a smartphone instead of a stupidphone - internet, GPS, touchscreen, battery, hard drive, voice recognition - was developed by researchers on the government payroll.
Rutger Bregman /
Iphone
Payroll
Recognition
Researchers
Battery
Sliver
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Since long workdays lead to more errors, shorter workdays could reduce accidents. Overtime is deadly. Tired surgeons have been found to be more prone to slip'ups, and soldiers who get too little shuteye are more prone to miss targets.
Rutger Bregman /
Accidents
Errors
Found
Long
Tired
Little
Since
Miss
Too
Could
Deadly
Lead
Prone
Overtime
Reduce
Soldiers
Targets
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True innovation takes at least 10 to 15 years, whereas the longest that private venture capitalists are routinely willing to wait is five years. They don't join the game until all the riskiest plays have already been made - by governments.
Rutger Bregman /
Venture
Capitalists
Governments
Join
Longest
Whereas
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There's always selfish behavior. There are lots of examples of people hoarding. But we've seen in this pandemic that the vast majority of behavior from normal citizens is actually pro-social in nature. People are willing to help their neighbors.
Rutger Bregman /
Hoarding
Selfish
Vast
Examples
Neighbors
Pandemic
Vast Majority
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A world where wages no longer rise still needs consumers. Middle-class purchasing power has been maintained through loans, loans and more loans. The Calvinistic reflex that you have to work for your money has turned into a license for inequality.
Rutger Bregman /
Inequality
License
Purchasing
Purchasing Power
Wages
Work Power Money
Loans
Maintained
Reflex
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The greatest sin of the academic left is that it has become fundamentally aristocratic, writing in bizarre jargon that makes cliches seem abstruse. If you can't explain your ideal to a fairly intelligent 12-year-old, it's probably your own fault.
Rutger Bregman /
Academic
Aristocratic
Bizarre
Intelligent
Jargon
Left
Sin
Fairly
Greatest
Cliches
Explain
Fault
Fundamentally
Ideal
Seem
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Most of Mark Zuckerberg's income is just rent collected off the millions of picture and video posts that we give away daily for free. And sure, we have fun doing it. But we also have no alternative - after all, everybody is on Facebook these days.
Rutger Bregman /
Posts
Alternative
Collected
Have Fun
Rent
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Since 1963, the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center has conducted nearly 700 field studies on floods and earthquakes, and on-site research reveals the same results every time: the vast majority of people stay calm and help each other.
Rutger Bregman /
Delaware
Disaster
Earthquakes
Stay Calm
Floods
Reveals
Studies
Vast Majority
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There is certainly a longstanding idea within western culture that civilization is only a thin veneer. As soon as something happens, say a war or a natural disaster or an epidemic like we're going through right now, the worst comes out in each of us.
Rutger Bregman /
Civilization
Disaster
Natural Disaster
Veneer
Western Culture
Epidemic
Thin
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A universal basic income means not only that millions of people would receive unconditional cash payments, but also that millions of people would have to cough up thousands more in taxes to fund it. This will make basic income politically a harder sell.
Rutger Bregman /
Cash
Fund
Harder
Income
Millions
Unconditional
People Will More
Basic
Cough
Sell
Millions Of People
Payments
Receive
Thousands
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As a species of animal that evolved to make connections and work together, it feels strange to suppress our desire for contact. People enjoy touching each other, and find joy in seeing each other in person - but now we have to keep our physical distance.
Rutger Bregman /
Animal
Connections
Contact
Desire
Distance
Feels
Joy
Seeing
Species
Strange
Work Together People
Physical
Suppress
Work Together
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It's actually more than 700 case studies that show that, especially in times of crisis, we show our best selves. And we get this explosion of altruism and cooperation. This happens again and again after natural disasters, after earthquakes and after floodings.
Rutger Bregman /
Altruism
Cooperation
Crisis
Earthquakes
Happens
Natural
Actually
Again
Show
Case
Disasters
Times
Explosion
Natural Disasters
Selves
Studies
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So I think that good journalism helps you to zoom out, to focus on the structural forces that govern our lives. And I think that good journalism is also not only about the problems, but also about the solutions, and the people who are working on these solutions.
Rutger Bregman /
Focus
Journalism
Our Lives
Solutions
Forces
Govern
Helps
Problems
Structural
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If I say most people are pretty decent that may sound nice and warm but actually it's really radical and subversive and that's why, all throughout history, those who have advocated a more hopeful view of human nature - often the anarchists - have been persecuted.
Rutger Bregman /
Anarchist
Decent
Hopeful
Persecuted
Radical
Subversive
Warm
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During the Enlightenment, there were brilliant thinkers who realized that, if you assume most people are naturally selfish and you construct the market around that, sometimes it can actually work for the common good. I just think that in many cases, it went too far.
Rutger Bregman /
Cases
Common Good
Enlightenment
Assume
Construct
Thinkers
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Psychologists even have a term for this: they talk about 'mean world syndrome'. People who have just seen too much of the news have become more cynical, more pessimistic, more anxious, even more depressive. So, yeah, I think that is something you need to be wary of.
Rutger Bregman /
Anxious
Depressive
Pessimistic
World News People
Psychologists
Wary
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We know from scientific studies that infants as young as six months old can distinguish right from wrong and have a preference for the good over the bad. I think it's important to design our education and our schools around that insight, to bring out the best in our kids.
Rutger Bregman /
Design
Insight
Months
Preference
Six
Education Best Good
Distinguish
Infants
Schools
Studies
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A lot of journalists help us to better understand the world by zooming out and sometimes zooming in on a really important case but sort of helping us to get a grasp of what are the structural forces that govern our lives and our societies and that is incredibly important.
Rutger Bregman /
Govern
Grasp
Journalists
Societies
Structural
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Well, the news is mostly about things that go wrong, right? It's about sensationalist incidents that happened today, instead of things that happen every day. So if you watch and follow a lot of the news, at the end of the day, you know exactly how the world is not working.
Rutger Bregman /
Incidents
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I've been thinking that school, or certainly the traditional English public school model, is like a prison, in that you can't get out and it is hierarchical. As a result they have a lot of bullying. On the other hand if you mix ages and academic ability this is less of a problem.
Rutger Bregman /
Academic
Bullying
Public School
Ages
Hierarchical
Mix
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Since the 70s and the 80s you see the rise of neoliberalism. The central dogma of neoliberalism was that most people are selfish. So, we started designing our institutions around that idea, our schools, our workplaces, our democracies. The government became less and less important.
Rutger Bregman /
Government
Democracy
Dogma
Selfish
Since
Rise
Became
Less
Idea
Central
Designing
Schools
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But I think 'Love, Actually' has a very realistic view of human nature in line with the latest scientific evidence. The opening scene, where Hugh Grant's character talks about the arrivals gate at Heathrow, is about friendship and connection, it's about who we really are as a species.
Rutger Bregman /
Friendship
Evidence
Human Nature
Opening
Realistic
Scientific Evidence
Species
Arrival
Gate
Grant
Hugh
Latest
Scientific
Talks
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Most bayonets throughout history have probably not been used because soldiers just can't do it, something holds them back... the same goes for shooting the enemy. We've got this fascinating evidence from the Second World War, and also from other wars, that most soldiers couldn't do it.
Rutger Bregman /
Bayonets
Enemy
Evidence
Fascinating
Second World War
Shooting
War History World
Wars
Holds
Second
Soldiers
Throughout
World War
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The first thing we should acknowledge is that poverty is hugely expensive. It varies from country to country, but most of the time it's around 3, 4 or 5% of GDP. If you look at what it would cost just to top up the income of all the poor people in a country, it would cost about 1% of GDP.
Rutger Bregman /
Acknowledge
Cost
Expensive
Gdp
Income
Poor
Poor People
Poverty
Time Look People
First Thing
Hugely
The First Thing
Varies
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Rutger Bregman Quotes - Page 2

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