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/arti
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Rutger Bregman
@rcbregman
Historian. Author of 'Utopia for Realists' (2014) and 'Humankind' (2020).
Rutger Bregman’s Tweets
"People are starting to realise that poverty is not a lack of character, it's just a lack of cash," tells on eradicating poverty through Universal Basic Income.
Full interview: youtu.be/LAWY15iWrk8
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Today, on Holocaust Memorial Day, I'm thinking about this little boy, the same age as my kids, proudly showing a flower to another child, outside a gas chamber at Auschwitz, where they were all murdered moments later. It is so important for us all to remember what happened.
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I’ve never made it a secret that I’m not a big fan of our prime minister, but this is a powerful interview about our support of Ukraine.
Tapper: ‘Will there be at any point a limit..?’
Rutte: ‘No. We will continue doing this. (…) He cannot win.’
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Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte @MinPres tells Jake Tapper the Netherlands is in the “top league” of countries providing aid to Ukraine @NLintheUSA
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It's important to expose the hypocrisy of billionaires and big corporations evading their taxes. But it's also important to acknowledge the progress that we've made since 2019. A short thread -->
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And what can we expect from Davos this year? Well, just like in 2019, there's only ONE session on taxes. I haven't been invited (wonder why?) but luckily the great will be there. Very much looking forward to hear his remarks. weforum.org/events/world-e /9, end.
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So what are the takeaways here?
1) There's a LONG way to go. Most wealth is hardly taxed. The share of multinational profits that go to tax havens has increased from 0% in 1970 to 37% in 2019. gabriel-zucman.eu/files/WZ2022WI
2) We've made some progress. Activism works.
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... this is pretty encouraging: the total flow of income from The Netherlands to tax paradises has fallen by almost 85 per cent since 2019. government.nl/latest/news/20 /7
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Let's finally zoom in on my own country, The Netherlands. For years, we've been a notorious tax paradise, but I'm not really sure if we still are? Of course there's an army of Dutch lawyers, bankers, accountants etc thinking about new ways to cater to the rich, but... /6
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Case in point: the United States. The US has been dragging its feet and Congress has blocked proper implementation. The consequence? American corporations will pay taxes to other countries that could be paid to the US instead. /5
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Why is this happening? Well, the beauty of the plan is that countries will only be hurting themselves if they don't participate. Corporations with tax rates below 15 per cent will pay a top up tax in countries that *have* implemented the tax. /4
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Next up is the domino-effect, a wave of implementation by other countries. The UK, Japan and others have already announced that they'll also implement the 15% minimum tax. Many other countries will follow. /3
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First, the big news of last month: the European Union is leading the world with a 15% minimum tax on big business. For months, Hungary's prime minister (dictator?) Viktor Orbán and his cronies were trying to block the plan, but to no avail. /2
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It's important to expose the hypocrisy of billionaires and big corporations evading their taxes. But it's also important to acknowledge the progress that we've made since 2019. A short thread -->
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A Dutch supermarket chain introduced slow checkouts for people who enjoy chatting, helping many people, especially the elderly, deal with loneliness.
The move has proven so successful that they installed the slow checkouts in 200 stores.
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This is the time of the year when Shell publishes its annual tax contribution report (this time, the 2021 edition) -- showing how **35** employees (yes, thirty five) make every year $500-plus million in tax-free profits in the Bahamas, via a little-known oil trading outfit.
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Paul Ehrlich, whose Population Bomb book was commissioned by the Sierra Club's executive director in 1967, called for denying food aid to India to leave families to risk starvation along with this nonsense.
The anti-growth "environmentalist" mindset is a highway to monstrousness
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Paul Ehrlich in 1970: "The FCC should see to it that large families are always treated in negative light on television."
If that doesn't work, then the government should "legislate the size of the family" and "throw you in jail if you have too many" kids.
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What makes a protest movement successful? Social Change Lab just finished a 6-month report looking into this and we're excited to share our results. We conducted a literature review, bespoke public opinion polling, interviews with experts, and more.
What we found 🧵
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NEW: conservatives have a Millennials problem.
In both UK & US, it’s not just that Millennials aren’t voting conservative because they’re young.
Every previous generation grew more conservative with age, but Millennials are not playing ball.
My column: enterprise-sharing.ft.com/redeem/a0c1c1b
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And here are some additional good news stories that you might have missed...
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The best malaria vaccine ever. First major climate bill in the US.
76% more growth of renewable energy than thought just 2 years ago.
Landmark pro-choice ruling by Supreme Court of India.
Lowest level of child mortality ever recorded.
2022 wasn't all bad.
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Finally saw Ruben Östlund's 'Triangle of Sadness' last night. What a masterpiece. Some reviewers have argued that the film's portrayal of the super-rich is over the top, but – based on my limited experience with these people – I think it's actually quite accurate 👍
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According to research, 20% of people believe this made up statistic.
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Remember the endless discussions about whether the radical tactics of work, or backfire? It's, of course, an empirical question. New research shows that: 'Radical tactics can increase support for more moderate groups' -->
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And the original Taiwanese version (with English subtitles!) is beyond awesome. Check out the mask!
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Gotta love the internet. Suddenly you get a message from a Taiwanese student who decided to make a 28-minute long, excellent summary of your last book 😁
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Or, in the words of , liberals should talk less 'about the redistribution of wealth and more about its creation'.
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Great piece and this is so true. Proponents of degrowth make a few good points, but it's a terrible slogan. How do think you're going to convince people? 'Vote for me and you'll get less!' The Left should be the party of more, of progress, of innovation.
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi
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SCOOP: Net energy gain in a fusion reaction has been a holy grail in science for decades. Now I’m told US scientists have done it. A massive breakthrough with revolutionary potential for clean power. US Energy Secretary to hold a press conference Tuesday
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Anyway, I think that the remaining EA-billionaires have the opportunity to set a new standard in philanthropy.
The best billionaire is an ex-billionaire.
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I asked about this in October mobile.twitter.com/rcbregman/stat and it feels to me he somewhat dodged the question - but judge for yourself.
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Replying to @moskov
One of the things I love most about EA is the costly signaling
of trustworthiness (so many vegans, people who donate a lot, sometimes even a kidney). Would it be possible for you to go further than a pledge and donate your wealth in an irrevocable way? (Just like Yvon Chouinard)
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Before the FTX implosion, at an EA-conference in Rotterdam, I argued that EA-billionaires should go 'Yvon Chouinard' (the Patagonia founder who gave away his company) and stop being a billionaire. That's what I would call costly signalling.
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Did a short interview with NPR's with my thoughts on the downfall of FTX, billionaire philanthropy and the (future of) the effective altruism movement.
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I've wanted to speak with Dutch historian Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) since his viral moment at Davos in 2019. Got my chance when we had him on @MorningEdition this week.
Listen to Bregman on FTX and the dubious impact of billionaire philanthropy:
npr.org/2022/12/09/114
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If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local.
The chart shows why: transport tends to account for only a small share of greenhouse gas emissions — the differences between different food choices are much larger.
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hahahaha I wish I had this in college
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I know everyone is tired of ChatGPT output, but I found an interesting use case:
Translate post-modern academic writing into something you can read.
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Chat GPT3 seems like the opposite of blockchain. With the latter you can mull endlessly over a serious use case, but with GPT3 there are so many applications that it's hard to know where to start. Well, first to go I guess: school / undergrad essays
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Thank you !
Pre-order my new book with investigating what happens to the economy when governments outsource capability to the consulting industry.
🇬🇧 bit.ly/3fqv5NF
🇺🇸 bit.ly/3rv5XrZ
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I don't think I've ever been so impressed by a new technology 🤯
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ChatGPT was dropped on us just bit over 24 hours. It's like you wake up to the news of first nuclear explosion and you don't know yet what to think about it but you know world will never be the same again. Here some interesting snapshots of this "explosion"
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Wise and sobering piece by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, about the 'erosion of norms around honesty' and the 'betrayal of the E.A. rank and file, which is, for the most part, made up of extremely decent human beings.'
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