Latest in the Section
- Proposals and ideas for showing off your bathroom
- The Bolivian Evo Morales may be a candidate for reelection
- 10.6 seconds for posterity
- First Latin American Congress of living cultures
- More than 3,000 participate in ongoing massive data journalism
- Lebanon: strike the blogger for taking photos
- Angola: Government threatens to close media
- Petition the UN to investigate the elections in South Korea
- Nicaraguan law advocate violence against women
- Died Jorge Rafael Videla, the ideologue of the military dictatorship in Argentina
Popular in the Section
- Rockers Accessories for Summer 2011
- Autumn Winter Fashion 2010-2011: urban clothing and sensual TCN
- Overview of Technology for Transparency, Part VI
- Nutrinews INNEOV forum for bloggers | Register
- Ivory Coast: three journalists arrested for posting documents on the coffee and cocoa
- Amniocentesis
- Copy the look of the famous
- Laos: Mekong Tourism Forum
- The five most beautiful football
- Farmerama
Switzerland: Initiative to establish a basic income for all |
 |
 |
| Society & You - Social Critic | |||
| Wednesday, 16 May 2012 11:35 | |||
|
In April, Switzerland formally presented an initiative to establish a new federal law known as " For a basic income "[fr]. The idea, which is simply to give a monthly income to all citizens regardless of resource conditions and the work has generated comments throughout the blogosphere Switzerland. The Swiss referendum process [fr] is a system of direct democracy that allows citizens to request a legislative change at the federal or constitutional. If the initiative to establish a basic income has more than 100,000 signatures before 11 October 2013, the Federal Assembly must examine and call a referendum if the initiative is considered credible.
In his blog, Pascal Holenweg explains what it is [fr]:
The popular initiative "for a basic income" suggests that "the establishment of a universal unconditional benefit" go to the Federal Constitution, which "would allow all people to lead a dignified life and participate in public life." The law shall regulate the Financing and determine the benefit amount (the authors of the initiative suggest about 2.000 to 2.500 Swiss francs per month (or between U.S. $ 2.200 and 2.700 per month), which is almost the same as the maximum current payment social security, but this is not written in the text of the initiative [fr]). Basic income is not tied to any conditions: it is not subordinated to any consideration. It is universal (everyone receiving) and equal (everyone receives the same amount). It is also individually (paid to people, not households). There is an income to replace lost wages. Rather, it replaces all replacement income (unemployment benefit, pensions, family allowance, study assignments, disability payments) that are lower. How do you finance? Through direct taxes on income and wealth, indirect tax on consumption (VAT), tax on financial transactions, particularly through the transfer of resources currently allocated to fund state pensions and unemployment payments, social security and other payments less than the amount of basic income. In his blog [fr], Fred Hubleur states:
The important thing is that this income is fixed for all without a consideration of work, right, is income without employment. This can crash. But deep down is a completely defensible. On one hand, poverty and insecurity, there will be need to strengthen social security other income, and dozens of different benefits and rigid. This unconditional admission is also good news for innovation and creativity. (...) We also have a new paradigm for persistent frighten capitalists: the liberation of the working man and restore its status as homo sapiens over homo laboralis (Editor's note: laboralis homo (homo travaillus added) is a game of words to describe the man that works) that exists in our society. Martouf identifies a number of arguments in favor of basic income [fr], as shown here:
This new world view has been studied considerably in the German-Swiss film Basic Income: A Cultural Impetus of Ennon Schmidt and Daniel Hani, two of the eight Swiss founders of the initiative: "What would a basic income?"
Here it is. Receive 2.500 Swiss francs every month without condition. Tell us how your life would change. Tell us what you do with your time. What dedicarías your life? The responses were varied. Antoine would open a restaurant. Gaetane a farm. Renaud is devoted to music:
My first project would attempt to produce a musical instrument that I am in the process of creating and putting into production. At the same time, give lessons on how to play my favorite musical instrument, one that is not well known in this region. You herfou70 give priority to his family [fr]:
I am a father (I have 3 children - 6, 11 and 14 years) and am the only family income. Have a basic income would allow me to spend more time with my children. My wife could do something besides take care of our house, allowing it to grow and develop.
On Facebook, those who support the initiative of the basic income have launched a competition [fr] called "star for life." Those who visit the site are invited to take a picture as if they were sentenced for life. A basic income "will do more harm than good" But not everyone is convinced by the idea. According to Jean Christophe Schwaab, a member of the House of representatives of Switzerland, socialists should not support this proposal, which he "will do more harm than good and will be a disaster for workers." He gave the following explanation in his blog [fr ]:
Supporters argue that basic income must "liberate people from the obligation to make a living" and lead to the disappearance of unstable or poorly paid work, because as this guarantees a basic income to live on minimum wage, nobody wants those jobs. Now, it is more likely to produce the opposite effect. As low payments are not sufficient to meet the primary objective of the initiative, namely to ensure a decent standard of living, the beneficiaries will be forced to work anyway, despite the basic income. Not disappear pressure to accept any job available. He added:
Finally, worst of all, a basic income to permanently exclude a number of workers in the labor market (they are denied the right to work): Those who are deemed not earn enough (eg due to disability , illness or lack of qualifications) must content themselves with the basic income. His analysis is controversial, as shown in the comments below this post. From a French perspective, Renault Jeff explained why the left is "against" [fr] of a basic income:
The left end of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was forged around the values of work and defense of workers. This struggle is about the endless defense of the employee and the Holy Grail of permanent wage contracts, even if this "condition" applies only to the minority. With the launch of the initiative, Hubleur expected [fr] to start a big public debate in Switzerland:
At least this opens the door to a wide public debate and the opportunity to reflect on what we want and the kind of life to which we aspire. I have been following the idea of a universal benefit system (among other names) for a while. I remember talking about this in a class on social instability and ties a decade ago in college. The idea is really very attractive and deserves a closer look. When you see the world created around the current capitalist model, productivist, you can easily end up longing for something else, for a world that gives everyone a better opportunity. Written by Stanislas Jourdan · Translated by Gabriela Garcia Calderon Orbe · View original post [fr] · Comments (0)
|
