Historian. Books: 'Utopia for Realists' (2014), 'Humankind' (2020) and 'Moral Ambition' (2025). Co-founder of The School for Moral Ambition.
New York
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So this is Rupert Murdoch reading my book on universal basic income, the 15-hour workweek, and open borders around the globe. I'm sure he'll love it. dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar…
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Absolutely incredible footage from today, the biggest protest of the 21st century in The Netherlands.
150,000 people in The Hague to protest against the genocide in Palestine.
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For some reason, I haven't been invited to Davos this year. Was it something I said? 🤔
NowThis Impact
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1/ Here’s the interview that @TuckerCarlson and Fox News didn’t want you to see. I chose to release it, because I think we should keep talking about the corrupting influence of money in politics. It also shows how angry elites can get if you do that.
Watch Fox News host Tucker Carlson call one of his guests a 'tiny brain...moron' during an interview. NowThis has obtained the full segment with historian Rutger Bregman that Fox News is refusing to air.
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WOOOW. A Canadian research project gave homeless people $7,500 each — the results were 'beautifully surprising'.
Turns out: basic income for the homeless pays for itself. It's free money, because 'the project saved the shelter system $8,100 per person'.
'cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c…
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How Americans responded in 1955 when the invention of the polio vaccine was announced.
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People like @GretaThunberg and @AOC are often dismissed as ‘radical’ or ‘out of touch’. But the reality is: their radicalism is the future. While the planet is heating up, it's the so-called 'moderates' who are out of touch.
NowThis Impact
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This is simply an extraordinary study. Researchers gave $7,500 (CAD) to homeless people in Vancouver. The result? The program *saved* money. It helped many of them to move into housing faster, which saved the shelter system $8,277 per person. 🧵👇
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Incredibly powerful investigation in Dutch newspaper NRC: Seven of the world’s leading genocide scholars — including renowned Holocaust experts — describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
And according to them, nearly all of their peers agree.
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"Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why"
Just make sure to make your own recording.
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3/ Years ago, when he was asked a similar question, Chomsky replied: ‘I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believe something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.’
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We knew it, but seeing the data laid out – it's still shocking: higher taxes for most, deep cuts to Medicaid & SNAP—all to fund tax breaks for the top 1%.
It's difficult to fully grasp the scale of the con being perpetrated on Americans right now by the Trump administration.
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96 private jets full of corrupt elites and celebs flying into Venice, a city destroyed by tourism, to celebrate the wedding of the world’s most shameless tax dodger: Jeff Bezos.
Well, it's the perfect anecdote for future historians writing about this Second Gilded Age --> 🧵
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So @TuckerCarlson just called me a ‘fucking moron’ during a prerecord for his show, for pointing out that he’s a millionaire funded by billionaires.
Let’s see if they’ll air it.
‘Did they get it on audio?? Fuck fuck fuck’ we heard them say here..
(Yes, we did.)
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Wow. Really overwhelmed with the response to my story about the real 'Lord of the Flies'. So so happy that this extraordinary tale is finally - after 50 years! - becoming famous. Here's a thread (with pictures!) on how I found the 'boys' three years ago /1 theguardian.com/books/2020/m…
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Good morning @TuckerCarlson, why didn't you air the interview with me last night? Couldn't handle the criticism? I think you should just show it. And try to resist the temptation to edit, I've recorded the full thing - including that moment when you start swearing profusely.
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"Gaza Beach 2030".
Peter de Wit wins the annual award for the best political cartoon in the Netherlands.
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Okay, so now @TuckerCarlson sent me this email, after I asked him when the interview is gonna air (was supposed to be on tonight). Stay tuned.
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1. Last night, I was invited to be on the BBC show ‘This Week’. I thought that Davos was a bewildering experience, but this beat everything.
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2/ I stand behind what I said, but there’s one thing I should have done better. When Carlson asked me how he’s being influenced by Big Business and tax-avoiding billionaires, I should have quoted Noam Chomsky.
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Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the richest Americans. For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans.
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Wow, Financial Times editorial today. 'Radical reforms — reversing the policy direction of the last four decades — will need to be put on the table. (...) Policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and wealth taxes, will have to be in the mix.'
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Short 🧵 on my feelings of deep unease about the current atmosphere, and the dizzying speed with which radical conclusions are being drawn. People who couldn’t find Ukraine on a map a week ago, are calling for a no fly-zone. 1/9
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Yesterday, results of the first nationwide basic income experiment ever came in:
- Greater wellbeing ✅
- Greater feelings of autonomy✅
- More financial security ✅
- More confidence in the future. ✅
Meanwhile:
- No negative effect on employment
(actually mild positive ✅)
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And no, this is not because bicycles have been popular in The Netherlands since forever, or ‘because the country is flat’, or anything like that, but because we *chose* the bicycle. Result of tough political battles in the 70s. Other countries could make the same choice today.
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A millionaire funded by billionaires, or, in his own words, “100 percent his bitch”.
Tucker Carlson on Rupert Murdoch in 2010 radio segment: “I’m 100 percent his bitch” interc.pt/2TF8XTr by @aidachavez
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- @aoc is often described as 'radical', but her views are close to the median for her generation.
- 10 years from now, Gen Z and Millennials will make up a majority of the American voting-age population.
- 'Radical' is the future.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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To most people in developed countries – even for conservatives – it's bewildering that common sense policies like Medicare for All are seen as 'radical' or 'socialist' in the US. Caring for the sick and the old is not left or right. It's civilization.
Reminder of what people are calling the “radical, extreme-left agenda”:
✅ Medicare for All
✅ A Living Wage & Labor Rights
✅ K-16 schooling, aka Public Colleges
✅ 100% Renewable Energy
✅ Fixing the pipes in Flint
✅ Not Hurting Immigrants
✅ Holding Wall Street Accountable
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Me @Davos. ‘Stop talking about philanthropy, start talking about taxes.’
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If anyone wonders who funds my work, that's The Correspondent. A grassroots, reader-funded platform for investigative journalism. Will start publishing in English in September of this year. thecorrespondent.com @The_Corres
“You are a millionaire funded by billionaires, that’s what you are... You’re part of the problem,” historian Rutger Bregman can be heard saying of Tucker Carlson in a NowThis video. huffp.st/XILyLQM
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This is exactly what I said to @TuckerCarlson on his own show. That he's a millionaire funded by billionaires to distract the American people from the real issues.
And what did Tucker do? He censored the interview.
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Dutch public television on Trump, Vance, Zelensky and "Have you even said 'thank you'?"
Excellent summary of the current geopolitical situation.
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The biggest waste of our time is the waste of talent. So many smart people working as bankers, corporate lawyers, marketeers, etc. – while they could work on climate change, space travel, the cure for cancer, you name it.
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We have to talk about age: Donald Trump is too old to serve as President. He rambles. He keeps forgetting names. His vocabulary is in decline. He has trouble finishing sentences. Many experts think he's demented. Clearly unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.
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Getting bombarbed with emails from producers and directors inquiring about the film rights of this story. I'm so glad the 'boys' from The Real Lord of the Flies are finally, after 50 years, getting the attention they deserve. theguardian.com/books/2020/m…
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Four-day week 'an overwhelming success' in Iceland. Shorter hours, same pay, same or even improved productivity, smaller carbon footprint.
➡️This should be the future of work.
bbc.com/news/business-577247…
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Maybe Rupert could give his copy of my book to Tucker now, I’m sure he’ll love it as well.
So this is Rupert Murdoch reading my book on universal basic income, the 15-hour workweek, and open borders around the globe. I'm sure he'll love it. dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar…
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So I hear Tucker Carlson, arguably the greatest hypocrite on the planet, is trying to make his comeback. Perhaps a good time to re-up this.
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A U.S. government plan is being enacted right now to surveil, silence, and deport people who speak out for Palestinian rights.
It’s called Project Esther — and it makes “cancel culture” look like child’s play.
Free speech defenders, where are you? 🧵
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Taxes, taxes, taxes, stupid.
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The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months
Adapted from my new book HUMANKIND -->
theguardian.com/books/2020/m…
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Maybe this is just my timeline, but why aren't American progressives dancing in the streets? The child tax credit in the Rescue Plan is a basic income for children. It'll cut child poverty in half. IN HALF!!! The word 'historic' is overused but this seems very very historic to me
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8. This was the worst experience I’ve had with UK media, but after quite a few interviews in different countries, I think I can say that, on average, British journalists are the least curious of all. So often, being ‘critical’ is just a pose.
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By the way, the biggest waste of our time is the waste of talent. Many bankers are way too smart to be working on Wall Street. Many coders are way too smart to be working for Uber or Amazon. They should be solving climate change, poverty, disease etc.
Rutger Bregman
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So the Fed released a new report:
- Top 1 % have gotten $21 trillion richer since 1989.
- The bottom 50% have gotten $900 billion poorer.
The real extremists are those who say American capitalism is working just fine.
nymag.com/intelligencer/2019… (h/t @MattBruenig)
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1. Philanthropists who believe their fancy educational programs are going to fix the world are wrong. If you're really so concerned for the poor, then pay your employees a living wage.
And pay your taxes.
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1. So I was on the Jeremy Vine (BBC) show today. They had me debate this think tank guy, Mark Littlewood from the 'Institute of Economic Affairs'. Sounds very prestigious, eh?
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People keep misrepresenting my position on philanthropy. I'm *not* against it. If you’re a billionaire and want to do good – that's great. Tell me all about your wonderful plans.
But pay 👏 your 👏 taxes 👏 first 👏.
Philanthropy is at a turning point. Here are 6 ways it could go wef.ch/2GQUyMD #business #economics wef.ch/2GQUyMD
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Give poor people $1,000 every month, for three years. No strings attached. What will they spend the money on? Huge and rigorous study finds that the biggest increase is in “Supporting Others”: helping family and friends.
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This is Margrethe Vestager, Europe's 'tax lady' (as Donald Trump called her). Today, she won a huge victory in the fight against Apple's massive tax avoidance.
We need more awesome tax ladies like her.
short 🧵 -->
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Another milestone. In May, wind and solar produced more electricity in the EU than fossil fuels – for the first time. 'Europe’s electricity transition has hit hyperdrive. Clean power keeps smashing record after record.'
ember-climate.org/press-rele…
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You know you're winning @AOC when this is the best they can come up with. Every Tucker meltdown is the sweet sound of history moving in the right direction.
On his show last night, @TuckerCarlson called @AOC "a moron."
"... And nasty and more self righteous than any televangelist who ever preached a sermon on cable access."
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For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans. It’s time to tax those billionaires. And no, that’s not communism, that’s common sense.
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Major new study finds that 4-day workweek (with no reduction in pay) leads to:
--> higher productivity
--> more revenue
--> Less stress, fewer feelings of burnout, and improved overall health and well-being.
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Do you dislike selfish millionaires who employ armies of lawyers to avoid paying their fair share in taxes, while they benefited from public education, roads, healthcare etc. and play for clubs that get millions in government subsidies? Don’t know about you but I do! @Ryanbabel
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10. The good news: there are new media in the UK filling the gap. Smartest questions (and best criticisms) I got this week were from Aaron Bastani of @novaramedia - a tiny startup with really smart, young journalists. piped.video/watch?v=PSzhg0bJ… [the end]
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So what is social democracy? It's universal health care. High-quality public education. Much higher taxes on the rich. Parental leave. Child care. Or in short: policies that are hugely popular and work really well in the countries that tried them.
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What you *really* need to see is @Winnie_Byanyima’s epic takedown of an angry Yahoo CFO in 2nd half of this video. "So don't tell me about low levels of unemployment. You're not counting dignity of people. You're counting exploited people."
‘It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water.’ — This historian wasn’t afraid to confront the billionaires at Davos about their greed
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The Guardian updates its style guide to the reality of c̶l̶i̶m̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶c̶h̶a̶n̶g̶e̶ climate breakdown, setting an excellent example for media around the world.
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5. Makes you wonder: why do these people even get airtime? Good news is that they seem like a relic of the past. The things he was saying may have been radical in the seventies. Now it’s just BO-RING.
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WOW a massive win in the fight against Apple's enormous tax avoidance. For years, the company's effective tax rate on European profits was less than 1 percent. Turns out: that was illegal.
$14 billion tax bill coming in.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
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9. Many are not really engaging with the questions. For example, compare this interview I did with the genuinely curious Trevor Noah in the U.S (piped.video/watch?v=hNalEtaa…), with this interview on BBC Newsnight (facebook.com/watch/?v=194864…).
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67% of Americans support paid maternity leave. 70% want Medicare for all. 75% is in favor of higher taxes on the wealthy. I know this is hard to take in, especially if you work for a propaganda channel, but this is not about left vs right. It’s about plutocracy vs democracy.
.@seanhannity: "Democrats Want Radical New Extreme Socialist Ideas" | via @foxnation
saraacarter.com/sean-hannity…
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Here’s the long version of what I tried to make clear in Davos. Most wealth is not created at the top, but merely devoured there. theguardian.com/commentisfre… #wef19
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A couple of people have asked me who I would vote for in the Democratic primaries, if I could. Now obviously, I’m not an American citizen. But the US presidency is a rather powerful institution, so I think I’m allowed to have an opinion 🙃 /1
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1/ So often, we think that big problems require complex solutions. This is what I call the ‘complexity bias’. People who suffer from this bias have become so ‘educated’ that they don’t see the most obvious and effective solutions anymore.
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11. And to clarify - I think my politics are quite different from those of @novaramedia. I'm not a fan of Corbyn, absolutely don't identify as a 'communist' (trying to save capitalism instead...) etc.
But they actually read the book, can't say that of many other UK journalists.
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What a stunning graph. Growth in health care administrators vs. growth in health care providers in the US.
Health care for everyone is not 'too expensive', the current system is.
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Wonderful news from France! The National Assembly has voted to advance a billionaire's tax—116 in favor, 39 against. The tax enjoys huge public support, with 75% of the French backing it.
Similar levels of support are seen in polls across other countries, including the U.S.
Après le vote de l’impôt minimum sur les grandes fortunes hier à l’Assemblée nationale en première lecture, l’adoption définitive est possible
Car, même si le chemin est escarpé, le vote d'hier est révélateur d’une équation foncièrement favorable 🧵
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I keep thinking of this Milton Friedman quote:
'Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. (...) the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.'
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Devastating review of the degrowth literature (561 studies):
--> 'few studies use quantitative or qualitative data...'
--> [those that do] 'tend to include small samples or focus on non-representative cases'
-->'large majority (almost 90%) are opinions rather than analysis'
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This landmark study in The Lancet should be etched on @elonmusk's gravestone:
Dismantling USAID is projected to cause 14 million deaths between 2025 and 2030 — that’s more than 2.4 million lives lost every year.
That’s as many lives lost as in World War I.
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6. The show starts. They play the badly edited video, after which three right-wing dinosaurs - two of them politicians from the Stone Age - start teaming up on you. Clearly, not one of them has read a page of your book.
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Uh, I tried to explain three times how high top marginal tax rates actually work (as a maximum salary) while you kept repeating ‘but almost no one paid them’. That is the point, dummy. nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opini…
US media fawned over R Bregman. He should’ve known @bbcthisweek doesn’t do fawning. We asked some pertinent questions. He didn’t know answers. Embarrassed, he’s now lashing out. Ho hum. But for man who’s made his name with “taxes, taxes, taxes”, his knowledge of taxes seems thin.
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So I was on @bbcthisweek tonight. What a bizarre experience. Three dinosaurs teaming up on me, changing the subject every 10 seconds, saying inequality hasn't gone up since Thatcher.
As they say in academia: 'Science advances one funeral at a time.'
The show stops in July.
The sight of 3 old dudes on live television just being smugly defensive when a younger person is trying to get them to think a bit differently about politics is hilariously depressing #bbctw
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Me: ‘My book is a NYT bestseller!!’
Friend: ‘Now you gotta pay TAXES, TAXES, TAXES!!’
Me: ‘That’s not communism, that’s common sense.’
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7. They make up facts about inequality (‘hasn’t grown’) and the economy (‘never been better’). They change the subject every 10 seconds. They hardly let you finish a sentence. Then it’s over.
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Wow, after the Financial Times editorial, now this. The pope endorses universal basic income. americamagazine.org/politics…
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A crisis can be a switching point for societies. Let the neoliberal age of excessive individualism and competition come to an end, and let's inaugurate a new age of solidarity and connection. nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opini…
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3. The weird thing was that he was introduced as some kind of neutral expert. I had to point out that he’s in fact a corporate lobbyist who takes money from Big Tobacco, climate deniers, etc., and sees Brexit as an opportunity to make Britain a paradise for billionaires.
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70 percent top marginal tax rate for income over $10 million? 'YES!', say most people. 2 percent wealth tax for households worth at least $50 million? 'YES!' say most people, *including* Republicans.
This is not about left versus right. It's about plutocracy versus democracy.
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It's funny how both degrowthers, nuclear bros, climate doomers and climate deniers manage to ignore a technological revolution taking place before their eyes. The rise and rise and rise of solar energy -->
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If there was ever a time to give people a basic income – no strings attached – this is it. After the financial crash of 2008 we had a bail out for the banks. Now we need a bail out for the people, especially the poor. theguardian.com/world/2020/m…
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This year's winner of the Nobel Prize for economics: “You don’t boost growth by cutting taxes [for the rich], you do that by giving money to people." bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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4. Actually, this ‘Institute of Economic Affairs’ just received an official warning from the Charity Commission, because they use taxfree donations to spread their libertarian propaganda. Which is illegal in the UK.
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Or like @robertwiblin said: 'If what you do gets three billion people killed it doesn't matter that the cause you were fighting for was just.'
It almost seems as if we've forgotten nuclear weapons still exist. Even a small chance of nuclear conflict is completely terrifying. 8/9
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The Netherlands: one of the worst tax havens in the world, stealing billions in revenue from other countries, and now our government – in this historic crisis – denies eurobonds and financial assistance to Italy and Spain. @#($*&#%!, this is shameful. ft.com/content/c3e4db7e-c45a…
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Thank you, @AndrewYang, for your vision, and for your hugely impressive and inspiring campaign. No one in living memory has done as much to spread the idea of a universal basic income and a world without poverty. cnn.com/2020/02/12/opinions/…
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The only strike of bankers that I know of happened in Ireland, 1970. Lasted for 6 months. Economy just kept growing, people didn't really notice.
Biden: “If every investment banker in New York went on strike, nothing would much change in America. If every plumber decided to stop working, every electrician, the country comes to a halt. I mean, literally, not figuratively, literally, it comes to a damn halt."
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Another fact that @TuckerCarlson and other Fox News pundits just can’t handle: vast majority of Americans, including Republicans, is in favor of common sense policies like Medicare-for-all, universal child care etc.
Tucker Carlson says government sponsored daycare is a nefarious Democratic plot to increase immigration
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!!!!!!!!!! Royal Dutch Shell loses landmark case here in the Netherlands. Judge says the company has a legal responsibility to cut greenhouse gas emissions. First time in history an oil company has been held liable for climate change. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Becoming increasingly convinced that degrowth is the worst thing to have happened to the left in years. It's a terrible slogan. And small isn't beautiful. We need abundant clean energy, housing, healthcare, education. Progress and plenty should be our rallying cry.
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The question rich people often ask me about the ‘risk’ of a basic income: ‘who will do all the “dirty” jobs? Who will clean my house and collect my garbage?’
Uhm well, let’s see, maybe you’ll have to pay those essential workers much more and maybe that’s exactly the point?
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