In Switzerland, a referendum for the
introduction of basic income is again considered.
Basic income is a concept in which every citizen are given a certain amount of money
monthly regardless of their position. It guarantees that people can live
without working unless they want to possess
luxury goods. It is similar to public
protection system, but it is simpler because it needs not to examine each
person's economic status. In addition,
people who are not willing to work albeit they can do are also given the
income. Therefore, basic income is expected to exclude persons with a low performance from the labor market. It will lead to the improved unemployment rate and enhanced productivity in each
company, theoretically.
However, basic income has not been
introduced yet all over the world. There are a couple of reasons. First, basic
income will increase the social cost. Different from the public protection,
wealthy people can receive the basic income. Also, poor people need more amount
of aid such as medical cost. The introduction
of basic income is not feasible considering the fiscal status even in most
developed countries.
Second, there is criticism for giving
money to unworking people. They worry that basic income system will make
citizens lazy. It will result in the decrease of tax income. It means that
basic income cannot be sustainable.
In this time, some people oppose to the
basic income. They claim that basic income will make women quit the job. I understand
their concern, but I am doubtful about their comment. If women tend to withdraw
from the job after receiving basic income, to be blamed is not basic income but
traditional employment system in which women are less likely to gain a high salary.
In Swiss, there was a discussion about the
introduction of basic income. Equal payment was
also proposed in the other day. It is relatively easy to conduct a
referendum on a novel public policy in
Swiss, but realizing it is not.
In my estimation, basic income will not be
approved at this time. Nonetheless,
discussion about such an innovative
policy is somewhat worthy.
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