Rutger Bregman Quotes

“I don’t want to live in a society where we are dependent on the charity of one guy and his wife.”

“I think the state should think like an anarchist.”

“I’m advocating open borders for everyone, which is obviously the most utopian idea of my book.”

“In the twenty-first century, the real elite are those born not in the right family or the right class but in the right country.”

“It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water.”

“New ideas start on the fringes and they move toward the center.”

“Philanthropy is not a substitute for democracy or proper taxation or a good welfare state.”

“Poverty is fundamentally about a lack of cash. It’s not about stupidity.”

“Productive women, seniors, or immigrants won’t displace men, young adults, or hardworking citizens from their jobs. In fact, they create more employment opportunities. A bigger workforce means more consumption, more demand, more jobs.”

“The great milestones of civilization always have the whiff of utopia about them at first. According to renowned sociologist Albert Hirschman, utopias are initially attacked on three grounds: futility (it’s not possible), danger (the risks are too great), and perversity (it will degenerate into dystopia). But Hirschman also wrote that almost as soon as a utopia becomes a reality, it often comes to be seen as utterly commonplace.”

“You’ve got all these people who earned their money through exploitation, rent-seeking, you name it, and then they do a little bit of philanthropy to distract from all of that.”