Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash | Rutger Bregman

Any first generation immigrant watching this from Vancouver, Canada ? Feel desperately familiar?

Someone teach this to BMGF

Oh man, if only we were a bit less egocentric and a tad more wise...what a world would that be😢

Many places force those using low income benefits to take money management education. This is to satisfy ignorant conservatives who believe that poverty is a moral failing and want to force those with low and insufficient income to jump through hoops to qualify for assistance. When you don’t have an income you cannot budget for things. Idiotic. Corporations are subsidized and cost us an enormous about of valuable and essential resources!

Much of the economic malaise of the world relates to greed and avarice .... it creates a polarisation of wealth.

For anyone wondering, this is socialism, this is what socialists want, this is also why the US denounced "the evils of socialism" the elites don't want equals they want easily exploitable workers to produce wealth for them, anything that goes against that is "evil".

Opening lines about poor drink more, exercise less, eat poor quality food etc. not entirely borne out in Indian context. Enough example of poor being able to use their limited agency to do a decent to good job of taking care and uplifting them in spite of a brutal social system ruled ruthlessly by the elite.

Im assuming Mr.Bregman has already given away all of his assets to the needy....

He's making a huge assumption that all people are alike. That we have the same basic wants, the same values. Some people would rather buy drugs than feed their families.

it's not about poverty is expensive to eradicate, or we don't know how to do it, it's about the rich exploiting and controlling the masses

UBI works only in a cohesive society, in the Netherlands we´ve held this experiment for years, but those who hate society will only behave like parasites in it, it´s the downfall of us all.

If you give money to the people they will spend it, so this will also be good for the economy.

Incredible as this might seem, poor people think they are kings and queens who deserve to enjoy luxuries. That's why they drive luxury cars, pay $10 a pack for cigarettes and $160 a month for TV and movies. It's rich people who are careful conservatives with their money, make sacrifices, and feel they are not worth luxuries. Just the opposite of what you would think.

You cannot give poor people money, to get them out of poverty. If you gave them a million dollars, within 2 months, they'd blow it all on booze and women and have nothing to show for it. Women blow it all on cheap luxuries and toys for their kids. Experiments with poor people have proven this. Poor people are poor because they haven't the brains to know how to sacrifice, save and manage their money. If they did, they wouldn't be poor people. They also have no pride and no care or respect for their possessions, plus an adversion to work of any kind. I once read a book about government experiments on poor people. There are 2 distinct kinds of people, people who are proud, responsible, smart with money and hard workers, and people just the opposite

Great idea!
Tax the working class unconsensually so that other people can magically break their bad habits and spend their money on proper stuff... 🤪

Imagine how many millions of children would be able to grow up with less truma becoming a generation of well balanced compassionate human beings.

There will always be a lazy few, and in the UK they're on benefits anyway. However, most people would still work, and others will get creative and solve problems. It would help people to have time to create their own jobs and sources of value to society, especially useful when we have AI and machines replacing some human work (Eg self-service checkouts), because more jobs are needed than available as years go on. Mental health won't be perfect but it will improve, parents will be less stressed and pass on less accidental generational trauma, people in the streets will be happier, crime will go down etc. Not perfect, but definitely an improvement.

I know about stocks and business start-ups etc but when you have little left over after bills, you're tiny margin of savings is in a losing battle against inflation, and when the washing machine breaks, you're washing clothes in the bath as you're tiny bit of savings goes on replacing the machine.

UBI means the top 1% will need to take a small pay cut.... they would rather not.

Poor+working=working while poor 😢
Inheritance+Person=wealthy family
2000$ Rent+car insurance+groceries+utilities+person+healthcare payment=depression
Food programs for hungry families is something i will always support.

Amen, I hear this one

My friend I that’s called communism and doesn’t work. I’m born and raised in a socialist country Cuba and I can tell that’s sounds good but it’s thrash believe me that idea and project only destroys country’s

Amen. I'm from the U.S. and, I hate to admit this, we are so far away from this and now with the recent election it will be worse.
My eyes opened to the affects of poverty when I became a high school teacher after a career in industry. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. In Chicago, with brutally cold winters, I witnessed some kids that did not own a coat. They just put on another sweat shirt. For anyone with a heart can look at that and not feel pain, god help you.

Amazing man

And it doesn’t help when 1% have 90# of the cash…!!!

Universal Basic Income would remove the element of coercion that capitalists need to make their business flourish. A ton of people do jobs that they absolute hate, and that are inhumane, just out of sheer survival to cover their basic needs. If their basic needs were covered it would be impossible to convince people to work those jobs. Coercion, scarcity, unskilled immigration keep miserable hard jobs filled. The way to counter this would be to pay people that do the hard jobs more, and people that do the comfortable jobs less. And this is basically the opposite of what we have currently.

Very enlightening. Thank you

I agree with the basic income proposal, but I don't like how Rutger Bregman denigrates work.

Maybe the plutocray is out of your control..words change nboithing.

you can't tax those who own you.

- millenial slave

The people digging themselves into a hole should change their behavior, and people that are in a hole and should be helped out. There’s some correlation but direction and position are different things.

His Royal Highness the King of Dubai pays a yearly stipend to his own people, the Emiratis, and they are so successful. It's a different story for other selfish Governments that enjoy seeing their people poor. That is an accurate assessment, Sir.

There are so many people in the media still bashing the reputation of people on welfare, they just don't understand. Without a full scholarship, I wouldn't have been able to become a doctor. Not by a long stretch, as I didn't even have enough cash for food and transportation back then. Edit: I'm not from a developed country, I'm from a low income country where doctors pay for their med school tuition with service. It's all the more ridiculous that media in my country don't see how this ends up working for the better.

❤

In Venezuela they have a lot of cash.

Basic income - a venture capital for people ❤

Money Is not the way to fix the problem. Its about finding the balance in the economy. Because getting more money wil not solve the problem if prizes rice as wel. Then we are the same problem again. A bread wil cost 500$ if the income increases.

Did u know we could be rich if the prizes went down.

Dutch douche.

If billion dollar corporations don’t pay federal taxes they could at least pay a living minimum wage. The minimum that is needed to secure an apartment, clothing and food in your area.

UBI should be a basic right, Capitalism is not the end all be all, ideas and ideologies evolve over time and the system where it is deemed “cool” to hoard wealth is due for change!!

This reminds me of a meme I saw a while ago that said: “oh no civilization has collapsed! If only we had a junior marketing intern to the regional managers assistant!”

The rich pulled another trick (THROUGH BUYING the media of course) when the pandemic happened and the US government disseminated cash to everyone, there was a noticeable amount of inflation that occurred (natural), but the rich took advantage of that. They artificially rose the prices on top of that to mask their greed, and claim everything resulted from pure inflation. They squarely blamed the poor for getting money from the government. When the poor receiving cash had nothing to do with the greed of the rich. The rich did not want the US government to continue to give people cash (which was the government's original intent until CDC officially announced the pandemic was over), because it would have eradicated people's debts, they would've been able to afford basic necessities and save, granting them an economic independence that this generation had not ever seen. The poor essentially would have come out of economic slavery, which was bad news for the rich. The poor could then leverage for higher wages at their jobs, think more to improve their lives, be more physically healthier in their lives, make better decisions in general. This kind of society would then be more smarter in their decisions, and create more competition for wealth, and create the situation of less concentrated wealth.

Man is by nature inventive.
When you have time and no worries you will come up with the best idea's, that help yourself and o society.

The contradictive is currently actual...

I have watched so many TED talks, maybe even all of them but this is the only one that hit me like a ton of bricks. @haipengli4769 has described it perfectly - stress from the pressures of modern living is poison to the creative mindset. There are so many geniuses in society who have heart full of love and minds full of unbelievable ideas that could transform the world for the better but they never manifest because of a lack of emotional reserve and time.

It is a great explanation of poverty and how the world sees poor people. Can this speech translate to Spanish please? This speech has to be heard in latin America

In the days of legalized Slavery. Slaves were give free SHELTER, FOOD and ClOTHING. The slaves had guaranteed income.

Microfinance tried to solve this issue. It has many success stories, but it has also spectacular failures.

This talk feels especially relevant in 2025

Crazy Christian neoliberalism is the problem