by Jenna van Draanen | Jul 14, 2015 | News
Swiss Parliament
After taking a vote, the Swiss Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs proposes to its board the recommendation that people and policy makers reject the popular initiative for an unconditional basic income as they believe that the acceptance of this initiative could challenge existing social security systems and be difficult on the Swiss economy.
Next, the issue will come before the National Council and then the Council of States, with both issuing a recommendation. A public referendum will be held in fall 2016.
For more information about the vote and the committee’s recommendation, see here:
Christian Muller & Daniel Straub. “Alert” Volksinitiative für ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen. May 29, 2015.
Secretariat of the Commissions for Social Security and Health. “Media Release”. The Federal Assembly. May 29, 2015
by Liam Upton | Jun 12, 2015 | News
A new organisation has been launched in Switzerland called the National Campaign for Unconditional Basic Income.
The new organisation aims to be a national co-ordinating body, allowing more efficient use of people, networks and resources to promote Basic Income. The founding of the group comes as federal elections and a national referendum on Basic Income approach next year.
Other Basic Income advocacy groups already exist and will continue to exist in Switzerland, such as Géneration-RBI (Romandie), BIEN-CH (nationwide) and Arbeitsgruppe Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen (Grisons) amongst others, however the new group will be a national co-ordination body, allowing greater co-operation and efficiency between groups. The group’s committee comprises members from different regions of the country.
The group will initially focus on communication and fund-raising to spread their message, including a leaflet which will be available shortly.
The group’s website is not yet online but it is possible to subscribe to the group here (Fr).
For further information, see:
Language: French
Ralph Kundig, “La campagne nationale pour le revenu de base inconditionnel est lancée”, BIEN-CH, 24 May 2015
by Karl Widerquist | Aug 29, 2014 | News
The Swiss government opposes the popular intiative for an unconditional basic income, but the national referendum is still to happen in 2016.
The Swiss Federal Council has released its evaluation of the popular initiative for an unconditional basic income (UBI), which received enough signatures last fall to trigger a nationwide referendum on it. The Federal Council evaluates all people’s initiatives in Switzerland making one of three recommendations: it could accept, reject, or no recommendation. The council chose to reject the initiative. The initiative will still take place sometime in 2016, the rejection means simply that the council recommends that citizens vote no on the proposal.
Enno Schmidt & Daniel Straub, the two main organizers of the people’s initiative said, “This is nothing special. We expected this.” The function of a people’s initiative is to bypass the government and go directly to the people even against the ruling government’s wishes.
The Federal Council also release a statement justifying its rejection of the initiative. The statement alleged many shortcomings of UBI, including: many low-paid jobs would probably disappear or be transferred abroad, Women would be forced back into the housework and care work. Taxes would rise considerably to finance the basic income and further weaken the incentive to work. The amount of the UBI proposed is too large and cannot be financed. It contradicts the principle of subsidiarity. The statement also defended the existing social system is in Switzerland. The Federal Council agreed with the founders of the initiative that each person has to be able to can live a life in dignity but argued that Switzerland achieves that goal with its existing system.
Schmidt & Straub’s reaction to the statement was mixed, “The tone of the message is fair, no nasty insinuations and no polemic.” But, according to Schmidt & Straub, the substance of statement implied that Switzerland would perish if this initiative were accepted by the people.
Philippe Van Parijs, of the Basic Income Earth Network said that this statement was an opportunity for Basic Income supporters “to point out the misunderstandings [in the statement] and to work out realistic scenarios in terms of amount and funding.”
For more information (in German) see:
Enno Schmidt & Daniel Straub, “Botschaft des Bundesrates über das bedingungslose Grundeinommen, [Report of the Federal Council on the unconditional Grundeinommen],” Volksinitiative Grundeinkommen, August 2014.
News.Admin.ch, “Bundesrat lehnt die Volksinitiative ‘Für ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen» [Bundesrat rejects the popular initiative “for an unconditional basic income’],” News.Admin.ch, 27, 08, 2014.
Didier Burkhalter, “Botschaft zur Volksinitiative «Für ein bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen» [Message Regarding the People’s Initiative ‘for an unconditional basic income’],” the Swiss Federal Council, 2014.
Aagauer Zeitung, “Bundesrat lehnt Initiative für bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen ab [Bundesrat rejects initiative for unconditional basic income].” Aagauer Zeitung, 27, 08, 2014.
For more information in French see:
Ludwig Gärtner, “Conseil fédéral suisse : Le Conseil fédéral rejette l’initiative populaire ‘Pour un revenu de base inconditionnel,’ [Swiss Federal Council, the Federal Council rejects the popular initiative ‘For an unconditional basic income’]” Zonebourse, 27/08/2014
Enno Schimdt contributed to this article.
“8 Millionen Fünfräppler auf Bundesplatz bei Initiative-Einreichung” -Aagauer Zeitung
by Harry Pitts | May 31, 2014 | Research
Enno Schmidt, “How a ‘stupid painter from Switzerland’ is revolutionizing work”, PBS Newshour, 9th April 2014.
The leader of the Swiss movement for a guaranteed basic income explains why even if the Swiss people vote against the referendum, the basic income can still claim a victory. Above, Generation Basic Income activists pose with the 8 million coins they dumped in front of the Swiss parliament last fall. Photo by Flickr user Kopf oder Zahl.
by Craig Axford | May 9, 2014 | Research
[Craig Axford]
SUMMARY: In this short post the author cites the prospect of long-term technologically driven unemployment as a fundamental reason behind his endorsement of Switzerland’s basic income guarantee proposal.
Philip Khaled Brenan, “Switzerland, the Basic Income, and Technological Unemployment”, The Cat House, March 26, 2014
