The Initiative New Social Market economy (INSM), “Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft” in German, was founded in the year 2000 by the German employers’ federation “Gesamtmetall” and follows the aim, according to its own statements, to spread its regulatory ideas among decision makers and the public. Its methods is contentious as it maintains close contacts to mass medias and used embedded marketing in the past.
In the last few days, next to German Google’s search-results on the term “Grundeinkommen” (the German word for “Basic Income”) an advertisement from the mentioned initiative appears, linking to its website, where it offers a selection of its positions on the topic. The introduction of the respective page is said (translated):
“The debate about a Basic Income for everybody has in Germany over and over again a boom. Many people are festinated by the idea to receive money from the state without achieving something. ”
Advertising at Google costs and it seems that INSM willing to pay to bring its position on the top for people searching for information and news about Basic Income.
In Germany the amount of adherents of a Basic Income is relatively high. In the beginning of 2009 more than 52,000 people subscribed an online-petition for a Basic Income in Germany and in November 2010 this topic was advised public at the petition committee of the German Bundestag. The interest on the topic is still growing and accordingly the search queries at e.g. Google.
