Switzerland is the first country to allow a basic income referendum to go to voters.
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Projections by the GFS polling outfit for Swiss broadcaster SRF showed almost four out of five voters opposed the bold social experiment launched by Basel cafe owner Daniel Haeni and allies in a vote under the Swiss system of direct democracy.
Though the monthly amount wasn’t spelled out, it was expected to have been around 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,560) per adult, with a smaller subsidy for children, without regard to employment, education, disability, age or even wealth.
Proposals which would force the Swiss government to pay each of its citizens the equivalent of almost £1,800 every month, whether or not they are working, have been derided as “a Marxist dream” by critics.
Andreas Ladner, a political scientist at Lausanne University, said the Swiss were “realistic” in their assessment of the plan. It is not clear how the plan would have affected people on higher salaries.
Accepting that people can “be paid without having to work would have been a very big step” for the Swiss, he said, adding that the initiative appeared mainly to have been put forward to spur debate.
Critics have slammed the initiative as a Marxist dream, warning of sky-high costs and people quitting their jobs in droves, causing economic chaos.
“For centuries this has been considered a utopia, but today it has not only become possible, but indispensable”, Ralph Kundig, a lead campaigner, told AFP.
The Swiss government opposed the initiative, saying it would have needed to find 25 billion Swiss francs a year to pay for it.
But supporters of the UBI initiative were not disheartened by the resounding defeat, insisting that their main objective had been to get people talking about the idea. “It’s care work, it’s at home, it’s in different communities, so that work would be more valued with a basic income”.
In Finland, the government is considering a trial to give a basic income to about 8,000 people from low-income groups.
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Yesterday’s referendum came after reformers gathered more than the 100,000 signatures required to hold a popular vote, a feature of the Swiss system of direct democracy. Similarly, the city of Utrechtin the Netherlands is piloting a basic income project that is slated to begin in 2017. The aim is for most cases to be handled within 140 days or less, compared to an average of about 400 days at the moment.
