Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

by Rutger Bregman

Reforms? Hell, yes. Let’s give the financial sector a real overhaul. Force banks to build bigger buffers so they don’t topple as soon as another crisis rolls around. Break them up, if need be, so that next time taxpayers won’t be left footing the bill because the banks are “too big to fail.” Expose and destroy all tax havens, so that the rich can finally be made to cough up their fair share and their accountants can do something worthwhile. Meritocracy? Bring it on. Let’s finally pay people according to their real contributions. Waste collectors, nurses, and teachers would get a substantial raise, obviously, while quite a few lobbyists, lawyers, and bankers would see their salaries dive into the negatives. If you want to do a job that hurts the public, go right ahead. But you’ll have to pay for the privilege with a heftier tax. Innovation? Totally. Even now, a vast amount of talent is going wasted. If Ivy League grads once went on to jobs in science, public service, and education, these days they’re far more likely to opt for banking, law, or ad proliferators like Google and Facebook. Stop for a moment to ponder the billions of tax dollars being pumped into training society’s best brains, all so they can learn how to exploit other people as efficiently as possible, and it makes your head spin. Imagine how different things might be if our generation’s best and brightest were to double down on the greatest challenges of our times. Climate change, for example, and the aging p...