Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World (July 2021)

[Lena]

After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way -- and in some places it isn't.

From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come.

[Lena]

Looks like several you have read and enjoyed this book so I hope you will chime in this month. My library graciously let me borrow the audiobook, I will start soon.

[Lena]

I’m on chapter two and I’m enjoying it. The refreshing, and amusing, look at history in comparison with today was uplifting. “People use to be stupid, unhealthy, and ugly. Now most of us are not.” That’s not a direct quote but you get the idea.

The Give Direct charity sounds like a wonderful idea but their website looks sketchy: https://www.givedirectly.org/
If it had not been linked through this NPR Article I would think it was a scam site.

[Lena]

I finished chapter 2. I had not realized how close both Canada and the US had come to universal basic income, and under Nixon of all people!

[Fiona]

I will be joining you soon! I would definitely not have picked Nixon as the administration likely to have been close to UBI - possibly the only less likely one would have been Reagan (though I'll admit to a pretty sketchy knowledge of US politics for anything pre the end of the Clinton era)

[Fiona]

I've read up to the start of chapter 3, and I'd really like an update of this book post-COVID! So far I'm completely on board with what he's saying; research that's come out since also supports that productivity tends to increase with a shorter work week, as well as worker happiness - but so far there's not a lot on how to go about accomplishing the change.

[Lena]

I’m somewhere in chapter five. The stats are coming hard and fast, apparently American breast milk has the gdp value of the Chinese military but it’s not counted because - women.

[Lena]

I’m on chapter six, deep discussion on shorter work weeks. I had no idea the Jetsons worked a nine hour week!

[Lena]

I’m on chapter 8 and we are still on the joys of the shorter work week. Among his reasonable arguments, less work, less carbon footprint!

[Fiona]

I am struggling with this one! I may not be the ideal audience - this seems much more aimed at convincing people that these are goals we should aim for. I'm there already! There's a real lack of the "how", too - what can we do, how could this idea practically work, that kind of thing. Interested to see how you get on with it Lena, though!

[Lena]

Try the audiobook!

[Fiona]

Lena wrote: "Try the audiobook!"

Oh good idea! I'll do that ^^

[Fiona]

That has actually really helped, thanks Lena!

There are some really good facts in here - especially the chapter on shorter work weeks - it's anecdotal, but looking at the dramatic lockdown environmental bounceback certainly seems to bear out his idea of benefit from people just moving around less.

Chapter 7, again, seems to be tailored towards the realisation COVID brought about who are the truly essential workers and who are the highly paid - that Venn diagram doesn't seem to overlap much. The bankers that went on strike only to prove how little they mattered was both hilarious and depressing.

I actually ended up finishing a lot sooner than I thought - checked the Kindle and it had felt like slow progress because the last third of that edition is notes. Somehow I always forget that's a thing with non-fiction.

Overall, yes to everything this book said, I'm completely onboard. But I definitely wanted more ideas on how to get there - especially when the author said a couple of things critical of the younger generations who hate the mess and have no idea how to fix it. Definitely a book which collects a lot of good data and presents it clearly and in one place though - there's solid value in that.

[Lena]

Woohoo! I will try to finish up tomorrow.

[Lena]

Finished! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That was an enjoyable audiobook I can see myself revisiting at a later date. Yes, he is preaching to the choir but he has excellent examples and kept my attention.

[Lena]

The U.K. Is Launching the World’s Largest Four-Day Workweek Experiment
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...