The initiators of introducing unconditional basic income dumped a pile of coins weighing a total of 15 tons in front of the parliament building
However, as NashaGazeta.ch writes, after the cold reception given to the project by the government and parliament of the Confederation, supporters of introducing unconditional basic income can only count on the Swiss: the initiative has been put to a national referendum, which will take place on June 5.
Meanwhile, the newspaper Le Matin reminds that a similar system of distributing national wealth has already been applied in some regions of the world. For example, in the 1970s, an experiment was conducted in the Canadian city of Dauphin for four years, under which representatives of the poorest segments of the population received a certain amount annually. The authorities wanted to find out whether citizens were ready to give up work if they were guaranteed a certain income. After a change of government, this system was abolished, and only in 2012 did scientists from the University of Manitoba begin processing the data collected during the experiment.
It turned out that in most cases, UBI recipients were not in a hurry to quit work or stop looking for it. The exceptions were mothers who had the opportunity to devote more time to children, and students who gave up extra earnings in favor of studying. The rest continued to work, not limiting themselves to a stable but very modest income.
An example of UBI can also be considered the universal dividends that have been paid annually on June 30 for several decades to all residents of Alaska, regardless of age and citizenship (the only requirement is living in the state for at least six months). In this way, funds accumulated in a sovereign fund, which is formed from revenues from oil and mining companies, are distributed. In 2015, the dividend amount was 2000 dollars.
With the founding in 1986 of the international network Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), the issue of introducing unconditional basic income began to be actively discussed in different countries. The prospects of UBI are being studied in Dutch Utrecht, in Iceland, in Belgium, where BIEN was born, the idea has revived again in Canada. In Finland, at the end of March, a project was presented according to which residents of the country are offered a monthly payment of 550 euros for two years (this amount is slightly less than the amount of social assistance).
In France, representatives of public associations and political parties are pondering various options for unconditional basic income. In 2014, the think tank Génération Libre published a study proposing a monthly payment of 450 euros to every resident of France. The idea of introducing UBI can often be found in the programs of left-wing parties, and at the end of April, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, spoke about a similar concept on Radio Classique.
The authors of the initiative put to a referendum in Switzerland on June 5 cite the figure of 2500 francs (recall that the exact amount does not appear in the project). Children are offered half or a quarter of this amount. According to polls, only 2% of Swiss are ready to quit work if the state guarantees them such an income. 22% of residents of the Confederation would like to try their hand at entrepreneurship, and another 54% would use financial support for advanced training.
And yet, the new experience does not particularly appeal to the Swiss: preliminary polls indicate that the UBI initiative will most likely not be adopted. 72% of the population intends to vote against it.
Be that as it may, for the residents of Lausanne, the outcome of the upcoming referendum does not mean a complete rejection of the idea of introducing unconditional basic income. The fact is that about a month ago, the city council adopted a postulate proposing (but not obliging) the municipality to initiate a study on conducting a pilot UBI project.
According to the Lausanne idea, not everyone can become beneficiaries, but only residents of the city who currently receive financial support if their income is below the established minimum. Supporters of the project hope in this way to protect social assistance recipients from excessive state control and to study the impact of UBI on their entrepreneurial activity.
If in a couple of weeks Switzerland says "no" to 2500 francs a month, will Lausanne become a pioneer in the field of unconditional basic income?