If we assume the best in people, we can radically redesign our democracy and welfare states.
Rutger BregmanRead
Employees have been worrying about the rising tide of automation for 200 years now, and for 200 years employers have been assuring them that new jobs will naturally materialize to take their place.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the ongoing concern about automation replacing jobs while emphasizing the historical reassurance from employers about job creation.
Rutger Bregman's quote reflects the long-standing anxiety among employees regarding the impact of automation on their jobs. It suggests a cyclical pattern where, despite fears of job loss due to technological advancements, there has always been a belief or hope that new job opportunities will emerge to counterbalance this loss. The quote invites reflection on the evolution of work and the dynamics between technology and employment.
Themes
AutomationJobsEmploymentTechnologyChange
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference on the future of work, this quote can be used to prompt discussion on technological impacts.
More from Rutger Bregman
All quotes →Since long workdays lead to more errors, shorter workdays could reduce accidents. Overtime is deadly. Tired surgeons have been found to be more prone to slip'ups, and soldiers who get too little shuteye are more prone to miss targets.
Rutger BregmanRead
My hope is that the corona crisis will help bring us into a new age of cooperation and solidarity and a realization that we're in this together.
Rutger BregmanRead
This is what a crisis does: It makes you question the status quo. That doesn't mean that after a crisis we move into some kind of utopia. But it is an opportunity for political change.
Rutger BregmanRead
While it won't solve all the world's ills - and ideas such as a rent cap and more social housing are necessary in places where housing is scarce - a basic income would work like venture capital for the people.
Rutger BregmanRead
Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act - it means that we don't need all those managers and CEO's, kings and generals. That we can trust people to govern themselves and make their own decisions.
Rutger BregmanRead
Similar quotes
I believe the equal rights amendment is a necessity of life for all citizens. The cabinet sometimes felt that I shouldn't be so outspoken.
Betty FordRead
Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.
Marcus GarveyRead
That is our generation’s task - to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American.
Barack ObamaRead
Sometimes I hear people saying, 'Nothing has changed.' Come and walk in my shoes.
John LewisRead
Great upheavals produce shock waves that widen cracks in political, economic, and security orders. Sometimes the old orders break. Yet it can be in the power of leaders and peoples to shape the directions of change.
Robert ZoellickRead
Earth, is not this what you will: in us to rise up invisible? Is it, O Earth, not your dream once to be wholly invisible? Earth! Invisible! What, if not change, is your desperate mission?
Rainer Maria RilkeRead