QuoteProject
I think one of the most important facts of basic income would be that it's not only a redistribution of income, but also of power. So the cleaners and bin men would have a lot more bargaining power.
Rutger Bregman
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Basic income redistributes wealth and empowers workers.

Rutger Bregman emphasizes that basic income is not merely about providing people with a financial safety net; it also serves to redistribute power dynamics within society. By ensuring that individuals, particularly those in lower-paying jobs like cleaners and waste collectors, receive a basic income, it enhances their ability to negotiate better wages and working conditions, fundamentally altering the balance of power in the labor market.

Themes

Basic IncomePowerRedistributionWorkersBargaining Power

In practice

Example use cases

During a community meeting discussing economic reforms, one could reference this quote to highlight the importance of empowering workers.

More from Rutger Bregman

If we assume the best in people, we can radically redesign our democracy and welfare states.
Rutger BregmanRead
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

Paper money has had the effect in your State that it ever will have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.
George WashingtonRead
The law of property determines who owns something, but the market determines how it will be used.
Ronald CoaseRead
Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action.
Ayn RandRead
Zoning laws making housing more expensive? That's less of a problem with a universal basic income and more of a reason to put money directly into people's hands.
Andrew YangRead
It is better that a man should tyrannize over his bank balance than over his fellow-citizens and whilst the former is sometimes denounced as being but a means to the latter, sometimes at least it is an alternative.
John Maynard KeynesRead
The poor don't live in functional market economies as the rest of us do, but in political economies where corruption and broken systems extend from local government to moneylenders.
Jacqueline NovogratzRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.