Jillian Steinhauer, “An Artist’s Plan to Get Everyone in Switzerland Paid,” Hyperallergic, November 13, 2013.
A woman dressed up as the Swiss Helvetia signs the basic-income popular initiative (via Facebook).
A recent Swiss petition drive has mandated a national referendum on a Basic Income. Parliament will have more than a year to craft the wording and call for a vote. An entirely separate petition drive has called for limiting CEO pay to no more than 12 times the lowest pay in the company. The vote on this issue will happen this month. Although the two petition drives in Switzerland were entirely separate, and to some extent competing, a new petition drive in the United States had combined the two proposals, calling for both limits on CEO pay and a basic income guarantee.
The proposal is online at: https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8734
Roots Action
Swiss demonstration as they delivered of signatures for basic income
Joshua M. Patton, ‘Would Switzerland’s “Income for All” Proposal Work in the United States?’ Opposing Views, November 13, 2013
This article begins a rather philosophical discussion of basic income with the following, “What if America were to scrap all its anti-poverty programmes—welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, the works—and replace them with an unconditional basic income (UBI) for everybody? Even in a Congress beset by less extraordinary levels of dysfunction, the idea would have little chance of becoming law. It’s fun to theorise, though. And if Switzerland approves a referendum to send all of its citizens $2,800 a month, the debate will have a fascinating new reference point.”
The Economist, “The check is in the mail: A government-guaranteed basic income,” The Economist, Nov 19th 2013.
The AP via the Economist
“Take one income, please.” -Illustration by Kelsey Dake, the New York Times
News of the forthcoming Swiss referendum on the Basic Income proposal continues to make inroads in the popular press; this time across the Atlantic where The New York Times features this important political moment in a positive light. The article runs through the manifold arguments in favour of the idea, elaborates on the different types of proposal that could come into being (i.e. unconditional/means tested), how it appeals both to left and right persuasions, and charts its historical roots both in North America and elsewhere. Significantly, the author recognises its potential and how it could make sense in the United States too (i.e. helping to address its current social ills such as stagnant wages, high and stubborn long term employment): ‘If our economy is no longer able to improve the lives of the working poor and low-income families, why not tweak our policies to do what we’re already doing, but better — more harmoniously? It’s hardly uplifting news, but minimum incomes just might be stimmig [‘coherent, harmonious and beautiful’] for the United States too’. More importantly still, the author senses the idea may just sneak into the Swiss system. Such a hunch reflects a discernable quickening and intensification of the momentum gathering behind the Basic Income proposal.
