Handout or no? Swiss mull $2,500 monthly income for all

I've read a few items here on ATS about the possibility of basic income in some places in the world in the future. But is appears it may be real for some in the very near future, maybe. What happens if it passes? With all the new immigrants this can't be good for the economy.

Private sector health insurance a requirement??? I thought Switzerland had socialized medicine?

Swiss voters get a choice Sunday in a referendum that, while not specifying a figure, asks if they want "unconditional basic income." Experts estimate a minimum of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,560) per month is needed for an individual to make ends meet in wealthy Switzerland, where private-sector health insurance is required and the cost of living is sky-high.

Critics warn that the policy would explode the state budget. The Swiss government itself advises voters to reject the proposal, and polls suggest it will fail in a country known for free-market policies and a high-tech, capitalistic financial sector.


Read more at: phys.org...

And btw, it's 2,500 per adult. From the link above,

The novelty of unconditional basic income is that everybody would get it automatically. It would be a floor: Salaried workers who earn more than 2,500 francs a month would get no extra money.

Under a proposed model, each child would get one-quarter of the total for adults—about 625 francs per month—a sum higher than state child-care outlays for families today.

That's a lot of money for just existing.

For example: two adults and two children would get almost $80,000 of " basic income."

a reply to: avgguy

Yes, and once again, the burden falls on the backs of the working people.

Possible ways of paying for it would include fees on salaries of people who earn more than the minimum, savings from welfare programs that would be discontinued and taxes or spending cuts in the state budget.

Seriously, who would continue to work?

$2500 a month,post tax isn't really much. If it wasn't for company health insurance I'd take home a little over that and my ass stays broke. But $800-$1000 a month for renting a 1 bedroom apartment in a neighborhood you won't get robbed or have million roaches will break you.

No hand out here if the people fund their government. Could be done in the US too and rightly so. Executive order HJR 192 effectively ripped the assets of Americans by having them turn in all their gold holdings for meaningless debt coupons. Largest strong arm robbery ever committed in history.

mainerepublicemailalert.com...

originally posted by: CumingsJA
$2500 a month,post tax isn't really much.

Who is paying?

Money does not grow on trees, even in Switzerland.

a reply to: burntheships

IF the .1% footed the bill it would be doable the world over... but they never foot the bill do they, they'll instead find a way to force the middle class to do it.

we have more then enough wealth on earth to afford this easily, but its all sitting in bank accounts being horded by the wealthy depreciating in value as currencies inflate and it fails to circulate, our society is designed to add wealth to the wealthy, basic income would not be maintainable unless that where changed to redistribute wealth evenly,

those worried about workforce forget we live in the times post industrial revolution where we can replace almost all humans with robots to do the job for us. and not everyone would quit, plenty of people would keep working just for something to do.

but it doesn't matter none of this will ever happen the wealthy have a death grip on their stagnating wealth and they have control over the policy makers so this is all just fantasy, go back to your minimum wage job which creates more wealth only for those wealthy

originally posted by: pryingopen3rdeye
a reply to: burntheships

IF the .1% footed the bill it would be doable the world over...

So people should be forced to pay 2,500 dollars every month every
year for how long for every person if they are in the 1%?

a reply to: pryingopen3rdeye

Even if you confiscated everything of value the 1% had, you would only be able to make the payments to everyone for a tiny number of months.

The wealthy do not make that much in actual money as compared to what they hold and most of that is not liquid.

You would essentially ruin everyone after a very short amount of time.

Consider just for starters that you are basically talking about a bill of 9.6 trillion just for the US for one year, and we are nowhere near the most populous country ...

Communism.

Why not call it what it is.

Communism.

OMG the Swiss are going to get fat lazy and eat themselves to death without leaving the couch.

Divest from there because Armegeddon is going to begin.

It's unsustainable. the Swiss GDP could not handle it without a minimum of an 80% tax rate!

That's a lot of money for just existing

It costs a lot of money just to exist in our evil, corporate world.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
Communism.

Why not call it what it is.

Communism.

It isn't true communism. Communism doesn't use money everything is free and almost no borders except the country itself. I think AI is taking over. Where by the Gov is in total control of this. This is more of Fascism in design. Just like WW2. Americans needs to support the war. Hitler decides everything and no homeless.

True Communism people have power to decide because they all work together as one with barely any borders. Fascism is a group of people who decides for the population, when and how to do it.

a reply to: makemap

It's soviet-style communism. I'm not playing any damned definition game about what is true communism and what isn't.

The government would have to own everything and tax 100% just to pay out the "living wage" to it's population.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Not if they control the currencies value and prices, then they can just put numbers in your account and you can use a card to buy it.

Totally new paradigm were moving into.

a reply to: StoutBroux

Fail Fail & Fail
Didn't try very hard did you,

Private sector health insurance a requirement??? I thought Switzerland had socialized medicine?

wiki

There is no free state health service in Switzerland. Unlike other European countries, the Swiss healthcare system is not tax based or financed by employers but is paid for by the individual through contributions into health insurance schemes. The system is universal but it is administered by individual cantons.

Oh and guess what they have the most direct strongest democratic system in the world - heaven forbid!

en.wikipedia.org...

Switzerland's voting system is unique among moderndemocratic nations in that Switzerland practices direct democracy in parallel with representative democracy. That's why the Swiss system is called semi-direct democracy.

Approximately four times a year, voting occurs over various issues; these include both initiatives and referendums, where policies are directly voted on by people, and elections, where the populace votes for officials.

So when you're done bashing Switzerland & Europe, care to give us the highlights of living in the USA, because, you know, its a well kept secret...roads paved with gold and honest Government and honest fair taxpaying corporations!

a reply to: avgguy

That's a lot of money for just existing.

Most of Europe don't just exist - they engage with the world - not stuck to TV or phones

amazing what you can consider when your defense budget isn't 600 billion dollars