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Rutger Bregman
Basic Income for everyone

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

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today I'd like to share
a big idea with you.

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In fact, I believe it could be

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one of the biggest ideas
of the 21st century.

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It's and idea that
could unite politicians

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from the left to the right

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in fixing our broken
social security system.

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It's an idea that could
give dignity to millions

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and accomplish what we should have
accomplished long ago

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especially in our rich
and wealthy countries:

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eradicating poverty.

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But first,

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I have to be honest with you:

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it's actually not my idea.

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Now, in fact it's
the idea of this man,

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Thomas Payne,

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who sadly wasn't able
to make it today

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(Laughter)

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because -- well,
he died 200 years ago.

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But it was also
the idea of these guys:

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some of history's greatest thinkers.

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Now I can hear you think:

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What kind of idea
could unite men so different

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such as the civil rights campaigner,

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Martin Luther King, on the one hand,

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and the free market
economist Milton Friedman,

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on the other hand?

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What idea could
unite thinkers so different

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such as Thomas Payne,
who thought that the government

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is the solution to most of our problems,

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and on the other hand,
Friedrik von Hayek,

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the Austrian economist,
who said that, well,

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the Government is in fact
the problem, most of the time.

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What is this idea, that goes
against the spirit of our time,

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right through
the old political divisions

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between the left and the right?

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What is this great idea,
this Utopian idea

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that so many of
history's greatest thinkers

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have been dreaming
about for centuries,

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yet which has failed to come true,

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so far?

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Well, some people call it
the "citizen's dividend";

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other people call it
the "basic income."

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Now, I like to call it

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"free money for everyone."

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Now, that sounds good, right?

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I know, it also sounds

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like a Utopian fantasy,

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something that will never come true,

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especially not in our lifetime.

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But I want to remind you beforehand:

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Utopias have a tendency
of coming true.

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Just think of how
the end of slavery,

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equal rights for men and women,
and democracy,

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they were all regarded
as impossible ideals, once.

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But in history, there is
something called progress.

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So let's start with this
simple, basic question:

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What is the basic income?

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Well, it is a monthly grant,

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enough to pay for your basic needs:

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food, shelter, education.

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That's it.

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Now, some of you might ask:

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Don't we have this already?

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Isn't there something
called social security,

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don't we have the welfare state?

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Well, yes, but the basic income
is something entirely different.

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In the first place, it's universal,

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so everyone would get it.

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Whether you're a billionaire or a beggar,

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whether you're a man or a woman,
employed or unemployed,

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the basic income is a right,

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a right as a citizen of your country.

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Moreover, it's also unconditional,

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so you get it no matter what.

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No one's going to tell you
what you have to do with it;

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no one's going to tell you
what you have to do for it.

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The basic income is not a favor,

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but it's a right, just like, for example,

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the freedom of speech is a right as well.

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But most importantly,

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in the past few decades,
in the past 30 or 40 years,

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it has become more than just an idea.

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"Free money for everyone"

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is more than just an idea nowadays,

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it has become a proven idea.

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As you can see on this map,

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there have been experiments

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-- this map is from 2012, by the way --

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there have been experiments
all over the world

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and especially in the South,

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from Mexico to Brazil,
from South Africa to India,

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researchers and governments
have experimented

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with giving people free money.

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This map shows all the
"cash transfer programs"

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as they call them, that reach
at least 5,000 individuals.

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And there have also been
very large-scale experiments

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in the 70s and 80s in Canada
and in the United States.

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They're almost forgotten nowadays,

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but they were a big success.

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Now, what researchers have shown,
time and time and again,

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by comparing a test group
of poor people who receive free money,

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and a similar control group,
so that they could see the effects --

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time and time again, they have shown
that free money results in --

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well, lower inequality,
lower poverty, obviously;

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but it also results in
less infant mortality,

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lower health care costs,
lower crime rates,

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better school completion records,

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less truancy, higher economic growth,

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better emancipation rates,

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and all kinds of other
positive social outcomes.

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Time and time again,
researchers have shown

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that free money may be
the most efficient,

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the cheapest, and the most civilized way

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to combat poverty.

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Now, I'm not going to
be able to summarize

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all the experiments that happened on it,

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so I want to tell you
about just one experiment

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that was done a few years ago
in the City of London.

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Now, this was an experiment
with some homeless men.

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To be exact, 13 homeless men

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that lived on the streets of London.

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They were "street veterans":

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Some of them had been living
on the cold tiles of "square mile",

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which is the financial district of London,

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for more than 40 years.

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And I have to mention,

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their presence was far from cheap --

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think of health care costs,

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legal cost, policing costs --

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they were costing
the British taxpayers

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hundreds of thousands
of pounds every year.

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So, everything had been
tried at that point

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and it was time for something new.

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In the spring of 2009,
a local charity decided:

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Well, why not try free money instead?

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So, each of the homeless men
received £3,000.

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Cash.

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No strings attached.

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They were completely free to decide

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whatever they wanted to do with the money.

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The only question they had
to answer for themselves was:

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What do you think is good for you?

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Counseling services
were completely optional.

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Now, of course, most of the aid workers,

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they didn't have high expectations:

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they thought that, well,

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the men are probably going
to spend the money

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on alcohol or drugs or gambling
or something like that.

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But then, something amazing happened.

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What happened in the first place was

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that the men turned out
to be extremely frugal

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with the money they received.

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At the end of the first year

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only £800 had been spent on average.

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And what did they spend it on?

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A phone or a passport
or a dictionary,

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each had his own idea

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of what would be best for him.

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Moreover, a year later
the impossible had happened;

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7 out of 13 of the men
had a roof above their head.

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Two more had applied for housing.

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Some of the men took gardening classes;

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another learned how to cook, for example.

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They visited their children, again.

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And all of the men
made plans for the future.

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It sort of seemed as if
the cash had empowered them.

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Now, I don't know if there's
a politician in the room,

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but a politician would
probably ask at this point:

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Well, this is a very interesting story,

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but what did it cost?

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What did the experiment cost?

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Well, the answer is £50,000,

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including the wages of the aid workers.

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So, in addition to giving
at least seven individuals

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another shot at life,
the project had saved money

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by a factor of at least seven.

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And this is a very
conservative estimate.

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Even the liberal,
free market magazine,

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The Economist,
concluded at that point:

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The most effeicient way to spend
money on the homeless

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might be just to give it to them.

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(Laughter)

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Experiments such as these, and
they've been done all around the world,

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show us that we need to rethink
what poverty actually is.

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Poverty is not a lack of character;

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poverty is a lack of money!

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Nothing more, nothing less.

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So, it turns out that it's a great idea

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just to give money to the poor
if you want to resolve that problem.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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we are living through a time and age

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in which our societies and economies
are changing faster than ever.

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It's an age of automation;

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the robots are coming for our jobs.

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Now, this will bring, obviously,
great prosperity,

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but it also means that
we will have to adjust.

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If we do not adjust,

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if we keep applying the
solutions of the 20th century

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to the challenges of the 21st century,

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then the middle class will crumble,
and inequality will soar.

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And truly this is a dystopian future.

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Nowadays, governments are obsessed

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with pushing people into jobs,

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even when there are no jobs.

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It's like the great inventor
Buckminster Fuller once said:

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So we have inspectors of inspectors,

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and people making instruments
for inspectors to inspect inspectors.

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The true business of people
should be to go back to school

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and think about whatever
it was they were doing

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before somebody told them

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they had to earn a living.

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I believe that the basic income
is a better alternative

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to our current welfare mess.

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But I have to admit, throughout history,

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there have always been
three arguments against it,

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three formidable objections.

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The first goes something like this:

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Oh, it's an interesting idea, but --

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I've done some calculations
and it's too expensive.

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Sorry, can't pay for it.
It's not going to work.

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Now, this might have been true

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in the times of Thomas Payne,
200 years ago,

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when almost everyone,
almost everywhere,

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was sick, poor, hungry and ugly.

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(Laughter)

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But it's not true anymore.

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As a society, we are richer than ever!

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I'd like to see the basic income

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as a dividend of progress.

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Because our forefathers worked so hard

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to achieve our current
level of prosperity,

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we can now afford to give everyone

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a share of their accomplishments.

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And remember,

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eradicating poverty
is actually an investment.

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An economist calculated

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that it would cost about $175b

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to eradicate poverty in United States.

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That's quite a lot of money, right?

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$175b each year --

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But it's only a quarter
of the country's military budget.

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So this is entirely possible,
it's entirely doable.

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And after ten, or maybe twenty years,

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it wll turn out that the investment
has paid for itself.

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Because the government will save billions
in lower health care costs,

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there will be less crime,

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and there will be lots more
productive citizens

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who will be able
to fulfill their dreams.

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So, let's move onto
the second objection,

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maybe that one's better.

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The second objection is:

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Ah, this is an interesting idea,

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we might be able to pay for it,

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but um --

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when you give people free money,

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they will stop working!

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You know, it's human nature,
people are lazy,

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nothing can be done about that.

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The interesting thing, here, is that

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if I asked each one of you, in this room:

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Would you stop working when I'll give you,

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you know, about 1000 € each month?

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About 99% of you would say:

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Of course not. I've got dreams,
I've got ambitions,

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I'm not going to sit on the couch, no.

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But if I asked
each and everyone of you,

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What would other people do,

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when they receive
1000 € each month?

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I think about 99% of you would say:

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Yeah, other people,

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they'll probably stop working!

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(Laughter)

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You know, it's human nature,
they're lazy --

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If that's what you're thinking,
I've got some news for you.

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The experiments that were
conducted all over the world,

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and also common sense, actually tell us

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that most people want
to contribute to society.

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Most people want to make
something of their lives!

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In fact some of the
experiments have shown

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that poor people, especially poor people,

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actually work more,
when you give them a free grant.

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Because it gives them the opportunity

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to invest in their lives,
or in their business, for example.

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The third objection,
ladies and gentlemen,

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might be the most difficult to overcome.

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I hear people sometimes say:

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"Well, this is a great idea.

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We might be able to pay for it
and I won't stop working,

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and maybe they won't too --

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-- but er -- this is too big!

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You know, politicians nowadays
they're too busy with themselves.

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And it's never going to happen,
they're always shortsighted,

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and this is just too big an idea.

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I don't think it's going to happen."

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00:14:12,669 --> 00:14:16,180
Well, if that's what you're thinking,
I want to introduce you to this man.

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You know him, right?

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This is Richard Nixon.

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The conservative president,

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the corrupt president, from
the Watergate scandal?

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Yes! It was this man
who almost implemented

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a modest basic income
at the beginning of the 70s

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in the United States.

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It almost happened!

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His proposal got through
the House of Representatives

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and it hit the Senate floor
where doubts returned

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because some more
progressive senators said:

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Oh, this is a great idea,
but we want a larger basic income,

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so we're going to reject this proposal,
and --

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well, we never heard of it again.

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It's an almost forgotten episode
in the history of United States.

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But it shows us
that of course it's possible.

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Remember, once again:

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Utopias have a tendency of coming true.

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The end of slavery,

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equal rights for men and women, democracy,

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they were all regarded as
impossible Utopian ideals once.

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But in history, there is
something called progress,

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however slow and erratic it might be.

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All we need is a little
more patience, sometimes.

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All we need is a lot
more collective ambition.

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Now, I understand that a short TED talk
is probably not enough to convince you

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that free money for everyone
is going to be

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the biggest idea of the 21st century.

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So, I encourage you
to read more about it,

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to look at the evidence for yourself,

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and think: Isn't it time
to update my worldview?

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As I said, our ideas often
lag behind the speed

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at which our societies
and economies are changing.

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The basic income may not be implemented
in the next 3 or 4 years,

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but it may be implemented
in the next 30 or 40 years.

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Ideas can and do change the world.

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In fact, history is ruled by little else.

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It's like the famous Irish poet,
Oscar Wilde, once said:

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"Stronger than a thousand armies
is an idea whose time has come."

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And I believe that in this century
the time has come

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for free money for everyone.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)