Because It's Time for 'New, Radical Ideas,' TED Talk on Universal Basic Income Gets Thunderous Applause

The post will be updated to include video when the Bregman’s TED Talk becomes available.

If the kind of reception the idea of a universal basic income received Tuesday is any gauge, political leaders should take note.

According to Business Insider, it “just got a standing ovation at this year’s TED conference.”

The cheers came during historian Rutger Bregman’s talk at TED2017 in Vancouver, in which he touted the social welfare concept of providing people with income to pay for their basic needs as a means of tackling poverty.

The TEDBlog wrote:

Bregman also said in his talk: “Just imagine how much talent we would unleash if we got rid of poverty once and for all.”

The concept the Utopia for Realists author is floating is far from new, and recent examples are easy to find. As Laura Williams, activism officer at the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, noted recently: “In 2008-2009 Namibia experimented with the world-wide first Basic Income Grant pilot project in Otjivero – Omitara and found that the A similar series of trials in India produced similar results.”