Switzerland is set to vote on a proposal that wants to pay everyone 2,500 Swiss francs (£1,700) a month regardless of whether people are working or not.

    If the plans go through, it will become the first country in the world to provide a basic unconditional monthly income, and they are already the first country to vote on the matter.

    The idea, which has been put forward by a group of intellectuals who insist people will still want to work and get jobs, has not received positive interest from either left and right sided politicians.

I somehow don't see this going through (though that's just a cynical, relatively uneducated opinion) but I would love to see this go through as an experiment.

KurtHectic:

Same country that outlawed minarets by public plebiscite in 2009 and only gave women the vote in 1971 nationally with the last regional canton granting it in 1990. It has also voted for policies that are in direct contradiction to its international treaties like the 2014 referendum on immigration restrictions.

So though there are plenty of innovative socialist ideas getting past the 100,000 petition stage to get to national referendum, there are plenty of examples of a generally conservative voter population blocking them entering into law.


posted 3006 days ago