Swiss reject project basis unconditional income for all – La Nacion Costa Rica

 Updated June 5, 2016 at 9:17 a.m.
 

The initiative proposed to pay a salary to all Swiss or foreigners living in the country for five years

Geneva

the Swiss rejected en masse on Sunday the creation of a basic income for everyone, employed or unemployed, single project in the world that led to intense debate in a country where the value of work is venerated.

According to initial trends broadcast on television Swiss public, about 78% of voters rejected the proposal, according to a national projection gfs.bern polling institute.

election, open tables for only two hours since most Swiss vote by correspondence, closed at 12:00 p. m. (local time). The final results will be announced at the beginning of the night.

The rejection of this proposal, submitted by a group with no political affiliation, not surprising in a country that, in 2012, refused to raise the annual paid 4 to 6 weeks, for fear of losing competitiveness holiday period.

“the Swiss voted in a realistic way,” he said on television RTS Andreas Ladner, a college professor Lausanne, having disclosed the results.

This popular initiative “for a Basic Income Unconditional” (RBI) proposed to pay an allowance or salary to all Swiss or foreigners who live in the country for at least five years, and whether or not they work.

the initiative suggested a monthly fee of 2,500 Swiss francs (about $ 2,533) for adults -the sum which is very difficult to live in Switzerland- and 625 francs ($ 634) for children.

This would have required a source of additional funding of about 25,000 million francs per year, and therefore tax increases or new taxes.

This project, unique in the world, gave rise to much debate in a country where the value of work is venerated.

“it is a dream that has long existed, but which became necessary due to unemployment caused by the increasing robotization” he said, before the vote, one of the leaders of the initiative, Ralph Kundig.

After the vote, declared Kundig very happy with the result, one out of five voters voted for the RBI -.

Both the government and most political parties considered utopian and overly costly project.

“It’s an old dream, a little Marxist. There are many good feelings, incontrovertible but without any economic consideration, “noted the director of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies in Geneva, Charles Wyplosz, who said that if the relationship between pay and work is over,” people will do less “.

the Swiss Interior Minister Alain Berset, Doctor of Economics, described the project as” utopian “with him. , parliament and political parties except the Greens and the far left, opposed the idea.

for the Greens, the RBI ensured a “lifeline”, an advantage for employees who could better resist “pressure from the labor market and reject deplorable working conditions”.

the Director General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Guy Ryder, it did not position but recognized that the long-term transformation of the working world will societies to “find ways of national income distribution that are not directly related to work or salary”.

consulted a referendum on other issues, 66% of Swiss voters approved a reform to speed up asylum procedures and 61% approval of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

PGD to select and freeze embryos, but only those of carrier couples of a serious hereditary disease or can not have offspring by natural means. Project opponents denounced a “eugenics law.”