“Utopia for Realists”
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Or perhaps "Left Capitalism" for a title.
Quote:His solutions are quite simple and staunchly set against current trends: we should institute a universal basic income for everyone that covers minimum living expenses – say around £12,000 a year; the working week should be shortened to 15 hours; borders should be opened and migrants allowed to move wherever they choose.Quote:Instead of just attacking capitalism and post-enlightenment liberalism, at the outset he celebrates its achievements. He shows the incredible improvements in life expectancy, health, wealth, education and freedoms that have been achieved in the last couple of centuries.As for much derided globalisation, he credits it with lifting 700 million Chinese out of extreme poverty – hugely more than communism ever achieved. But whereas idealists in the 60s extolled Maoism, regardless of the death and destruction it wrought, no one gets too misty eyed about what the international market has done for China. Why, I ask, are the progressive-minded so reluctant to acknowledge this remarkable turnaround?
“I think the big problem on the left,” says Bregman, “is that it only knows what it’s against. So it’s against austerity, against the establishment, against homophobia, against racism. I’m not saying I’m not against those things, but I think you should be for something. You need to have a new vision of where you want to go.”
We regularly acknowledge the historical benefits of the capitalist system in the past but, of coure, counter that it has outlived this progressive phase. Bregman can cherry-pick other examples of this capitalist gain for society, such as technological advances.
And his point that we should be for something, ie for socialism, is a point i think nearly all of us have made but never quite have the same impact.
How do we stop capitalist ideologists even if they decline to concede that they are from stealing our revolutionary clothes such as promoting meaningful work and less wage-slavery?
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