In Utopia, Bregman draws on a wealth of research to highlight deficiencies in the means-tested benefit programs that constitute the welfare states of most developed societies. Credit to: The London School of Economics and Political Science While Davies may be more sympathetic to the second line of reasoning, he spends most of his time critiquing the first. The second considers it to be a necessary means of radically transforming the existing social order. The first considers UBI to be a pragmatic solution to the shortcomings of the current social welfare system. Historically, UBI has found supporters on both sides of the political divide.ĭavies distinguishes between two types of arguments Bregman makes for basic income. Such an off hand rejection of a book advocating basic income from the education director of a think tank advocating free market capitalism may be unsurprising to some, but Davies’ response is actually not as inevitable as it may seem. To clarify, he quickly notes that it is interesting “not so much because of its particular content…but because it gives us an insight into what may turn out to be a development of both intellectual and political importance” (p. “Rutger Bregman’s book is both interesting and irritating,” declares Davies in the opening line of his review. He makes his case in the most recent edition of the Journal of Economic Affairs.

However, Stephen Davies, education director at the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), remains skeptical of many of the young Dutch journalist’s ideas. The book has become an international bestseller, garnering praise from intellectual heavyweights and propelling its author to the TED stage this past April. In the three years since its initial publication, Rutger Bregman’s Utopia for Realists has helped spur a global conversation on universal basic income (UBI).

Utopia for realists book review