Basic Income at the Community Level

I am impressed by the idea of ​​an unconditional basic income (hereinafter referred to as BGE) and belong to the quarter that voted "Yes" in the poll on June 5, 2016 [1].

Why didn't it work?

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems that stood in the way of a national * introduction was assessing the consequences and risks.

*: The initiative says roughly: "The 'Bund' ensures the introduction of a basic income that enables the 'entire' population to live in dignity."

Out and about in the Jura

A few weeks after the vote, I set off with colleagues for a bike weekend in the Jura. On the way we had lively discussions about various topics, including the UBI and the recent referendum. We asked ourselves what stopped us Swiss from accepting the initiative and came up with the uncertainty and the risk.

Another topic on the way was dealing with dependencies in software development (keyword: "Dependency Inversion Principle" [2]). As an engineer, I am used to divide large, difficult problems into more manageable, smaller units.

What do you get when you apply the engineering system to the BGE? What if a municipality could determine for itself whether and in what form it introduced a UBI? Could this be used to defuse the problem mentioned at the beginning? We had a lively debate about this and the idea of ​​a UBI at community level was born.

Some thoughts from the discussion

Motivation:
  • What should work on a large scale has to work on a small scale.
  • The federal system in Switzerland would actually be predestined for a UBI at community level.
Benefits:
  • Risk is divided into smaller units
  • Self-determination of an introduction, financing and responsibility lie with the municipality
Challenge:
  • National institutions as well as rules and laws cannot simply be ignored or circumvented locally.
  • There are social works like the ALV, the national (law) resp. are regulated by the canton (authority). 
Wishes:
  • A BGE can be budgeted for the coming year and decided at a community meeting.
  • It should be possible to adjust the amount of a BGE once it has been introduced or even to cancel it completely.
Questions:
  • Could a community introduce a UBI despite the challenges mentioned?
  • Which requirements would have to be fulfilled at national and cantonal level so that a municipality is able to introduce a basic income itself?
  • What could be done to improve the opportunities for community initiation?
  • Would this be possible, for example, for a rich community without these requirements (ie by deviating from the idea of ​​a cost-neutral UBI)?
  • What opportunities could a municipality already use for funding?
  • How does the municipality get the basic amount of the working residents so that the basic income can be paid out monthly?
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