The NO vote swep away the proposal
The Swiss referendum process
is a system of participatory democracy
that enables citizens to call for legislative change
at the federal or constitutional level
Berne, June 6.─ The people of Switzerland have rejected a proposal to give a universal basic income (UBI) to every citizen, with almost 77% saying ‘no’ vs 23% in favor.
They were voting on the idea in a referendum after an independent group, Bien-CH, gained enough signatures on a petition to trigger a vote, per Swiss law.
The idea of a future need for a UBI to grease the wheels of the capitalist economies has been gaining ground with some economists and technologists, driven by the notion that tech-fueled automation will result in fewer jobs — leading to the obvious question: how will people earn money to pay for the goods and services that will fire future economies if there aren’t enough jobs to go around?
At the end of last month, Y Combinator announced an experiment with basic income in Oakland — saying it would pay basic income to a group of people over a five-year period and study the effects. There are also experiments planned in Europe, in the Netherlands and Finland ...