Switzerland Votes in Universal Basic Income Referendum
The Swiss referendum on basic income received 23% support overall, varying from 38% in some ot the French parts of the country down to about 15% in other parts.
There has been a lot written about it already, but there is a fairly broad consensus that the basic income figure of 2500 Francs per person per month mentioned during the campaign (though it was not part of the referendum itself) was too high and scared some voters away from supporting it.
To put the number into perspective, 1 franc is roughly 1.5 $NZ, so similar to NZ$1000/week for each adult, less for children. That's a BIG basic income even when taking account that Switzerland has one of the world's highest costs of living.
BINZ does not promote any particular level of basic income because we believe the level at which basic income is paid should be set by the public at large and the government of the day prior to implimentation.
However, the lowest practical level for a "full" basic income is what we call a neutral basic income. The net household income of each household (whether non-working, low, medium or high income) would remain the same as it is today. Everyone would get all the benefits of basic income but there is no income redistribution.
Because each household would have the same net income as it has now there would be no "cost" at all: opposition to basic income on the basis of "cost" is a monumental myth.
A basic income above the neutral level would probably involve some income redistribution but the amount of redistribution needed to eliminate poverty is very small indeed, just a few percent of our economic output. Since the public and the government would get to decide the level of income redistributionany, any basic income would, by definition, always be affordable.
