Following a successful campaign aiming at collecting more than 100,000 signatures, Switzerland will hold national referendum to vote on basic income.
On October 4, 2013 activists delivered more than the necessary 100,000 to call for the vote. The organizing committee for the initiative has been collecting signatures for months in preparation for this event. The proposal is for a substantial basic income of 2,500 francs ($2,756US) per month for every adult legal resident of Switzerland.
Along with the signatures, supporters held a large demonstration outside the Federal Palace in Bern. At the demonstration they dropped a dump truck load of 8 million five-rappen coins, one for each person living in Switzerland (see video below). Assuming the signatures are valid, the government is now obliged to schedule a vote in the near future.
For more on the initiative see:
Alice Baghdjian (author) Denis Balibouse (reporter), and Gareth Jones (editor), “Swiss to vote on 2,500 franc basic income for every adult,” Reuters, October 4, 2013. Reposted by MSN: https://news.msn.com/world/swiss-to-vote-on-dollar2800-monthly-income-for-all-adults?stay=1
VIDEO: “Switzerland: Parliament forced to debate basic income for nationals” Ruptly TV, Oct 3, 2013: Enno Schmidt, founder of Generation Basic Income Initiative, talks through the aims of the unconditional basic income initiative.
Max Rivlin-Nadler, “Swiss to Vote on Guaranteed $2800 Monthly Income for All Adults,” Gawker, October 5, 2013.
Common Dreams staff, “Swiss Showing the World How to Take on Pay Inequality” Common Dreams, Saturday, October 5, 2013. This story includes photos and embedded video.
Ivan Botoucharov, “The Abolition of Poverty in Switzerland: A Template for Europe?” One-Europe, 04 Oct 2013
Anna Edwards, “Streets of Basel paved with gold: 15 TONS of five cent coins are dumped on city’s streets as protesters demand a basic minimum income for every Swiss household,” The Mail Online, 4 October 2013. This story includes pictures of how the coins were assembled to be dropped during the demonstration in Bern.
If you know of other stories on this issue, please leave the full info and link in the comments section. Please note what language the story is in.
A tiny transaction fee on wall street derivatives trading would do the same thing for the U.S. Imagine what that would do to stimulate the world economy.
If a basic income is introduced in Switzerland and it works out, this could be the start of it being introduced in other European countries.
Wow! It’s great! I expect a wise decision from the Swiss people^_^