Switzerland’s Base Income Vote Turns Finance Reform Into a Democratic Spectacle

Written on February 13th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

Published on INVERSE, by Ethan Jacobs, Feb 11, 2016.

Swiss citizens will decide whether they should receive over $2,500 a month for being Swiss.

Americans are so intensely and intimately familiar with the virtues and vices of representative democracy, it’s easy for us to forget that democracy has alternative forms. Switzerland is about to give us a valuable reminder. As U.S. presidential candidates regurgitate stump speeches in the lead up to Super Tuesday, the TK citizens of Europe’s famously neutral, famously TK mountain kingdom will put the idea of basic income to a vote. The Swiss are having a referendum on whether they should be paid for being Swiss.  

Unconditional base income is an idea that has gained some traction in more affluent countries. The essential notion is that a government supported by tax payers should be able to guarantee those taxpayers a specific annual allotment and that this will bolster or stabilize an economy. It’s a policy that would be nearly impossible to implement stateside because of the two-party system, but conceivable in Switzerland where politics can be, in a sense, circumvented in the name of democracy … //

… more text, some pictures … and a video from The Real News, 12.34 min … //

… Come June, Switzerland could be the first country to — based on the demands of its people — reimagine what capitalism can mean to a modern nation. The referendum is unlikely to pass, but it makes Swiss politics fascinating for the first time in, well, ever.

(full text).

Links:

Russian scientists tell RT how they enabled discovery of cosmic gravitational waves (EXCLUSIVE), on RT, Feb 12, 2016;

INDIA: the death of a Dalit scholar, on Frontline Online, by KUNAL SHANKAR, Feb 11, 2016;: Rohith Vemula’s suicide in the University of Hyderabad brings into the open the deep-seated caste biases and discrimination against Dalit students, especially in institutions of higher education in the country;
(see also: A suicide retold, on Frontline Online, by ILANGOVAN RAJASEKARAN, Feb 2016: in the wake of Rohith Vemula’s suicide, it is time to revisit the 2008 death of a scholar from Tamil Nadu at the University of Hyderabad, which is a telling reminder that casteism has been rampant there for years);

Do government spending and taxation really reduce inequality, or do we need more thorough measurements - A response to the World Bank researchers, on Econ3×3, by Patrick Bond, 10 February 2016;

CAPC now offering free tax filing for low- and moderate-income households, on Watertown Daily Times, by Eli Anderson, Feb 10, 2016;

Trepalium, la série d’Arte où la lutte des places a remplacé la lutte des classes, dans l’Usine Nouvelle, par Anne-Sophie Bellaiche, le 10 févr 2016;

Démocratie européenne, le réveil de la Force, dans Huffingtonpost.fr, le 9 févr 2016;

Face au chômage, les politiques sont à côté de la plaque. 3 mesures pour tout changer, dans l’OBS, par Sylvain Gouz, le 9 févr 2016;

THE INSIDER: Nice work if you can get it (or don’t need it), on Business Day BD live, Feb 9, 2016;

Closing the Balkan Route – will Greece become a Refugee Bottleneck? on Spiegel Online International, Feb 9, 2016 (Photo Gallery): with EU officials considering border closures along the Balkan refugee route, Greece is worried that it will become overwhelmed by migrants. The EU has chastised Greece for not securing its external border, but failings can be found in Brussels too;

Seventy years of harassing political establishment and people of Europe, on Voltairenet.org, by Andrey Fomin, Feb 5, 2016: contrary to appearances, the decision of the United States to investigate a possible Russian aid to anti-European parties is not intended to protect Europeans from foreign interference. This is quite the opposite. For 70 years, Washington controls the West European politics prohibiting all forms of genuine democracy;

Western Aggression is the Highest Form of Terrorism, on The Real News, by Edward Herman, Feb 1, 2016;

Have real wages fallen behind or increased out of line with productivity? a macroeconomic perspective, on Econ3×3, by Philippe Burger, 20 January 2016;

Was tun gegen Volksverdummung in Deutschland? 16.36 min, von RT Deutsch am 7. Jan 2016 hochgeladen;

Veränderungen 2015-2016 – Heiko Schrang, 39.47 min, von satsang – full am 4. Jan 2016 hochgeladen … Heiko Schrang der Autor von der „Jahrhundertlüge, die nur Insider kennen“ und Betreiber von SchrangTV ” im Gespräch mit Jo Conrad über persönliche Erfahrungen und die aktuellen Entwicklungen und die Aussichten auf 2016;

THE US NATIONAL DEBT, uploaded by Minethis1, July 2014: 1 of 5, 2.39 min; 2 of 5, 1.30 min; 3 of 5, 4.34 min; 4 of 5, 5.37 min; 5 of 5, 7.31 min;

… and this:

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