Utopia Isn't a Failure of Imagination

Yup you missed me last week. I did a 24 hour bike race called the Terry Hard for the Terry Fox Ride of Hope. I got busy preparing for that. The whole week, and even during the ride, I was thinking that I'd write about how good we have it. Bregman starts his book reminding us that in 1820 88% of people lived in poverty, and now fewer than 10%1 suffer the same fate. He also notes that more people today suffer from obesity than hunger2. Those are both encouraging things. We're doing better than we ever have. But looking through my notes as I sit to write the thing that sticks out to me is his assertion that the biggest problem now is that we can't come up with a new idea for a utopia to strive towards3. Is it that we can't come up with an idea or that we know what it is but the influence of billionaires on our laws precludes the utopia we want from happening? We know that basic income works and that housing first saves communities money. Yet even with this knowledge we struggle to get…