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    IhpsdmHamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 11:48am

    How exactly were they going to pay for it? Through increased tax revenue?

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      HarlotOScaraIhpsdm
      6/06/16 11:50am

      You don’t understand. It’s free. Just like free healthcare, college, and everything else, no one has to pay for it. That’s the magic of it. If you put “free” in front of something it doesn’t have a cost. Please try to learn something about economics.

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      m.sphinxIhpsdm
      6/06/16 11:52am

      The money was supposed to come from dismantling the welfare system. The total cost of paying people to decide who gets welfare was instead to be distributed evenly across the country.

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    Vox PopulistHamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 11:47am

    The size of the basic income (about $2500) was simply too high to get a foot in the door, which is what they should have done.

    It was an easy day for big business to quench this referendum. If they had gone with half the number, it might have gone a different way and there would have been solid groundwork for future expansion of the program.

    They simply overplayed their hand and this chance won’t come again, because Switzerland is (probably?) the only country where such sweeping referendums are even possible.

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      IhpsdmVox Populist
      6/06/16 11:49am

      What about Finland? Weren’t they discussing the same idea due to high unemployment?

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      Vox PopulistIhpsdm
      6/06/16 11:57am

      I’m not versed in the political system of Finland, so I really can’t say.

      The only party that put the basic income in its program here in Germany was the Pirate Party, but even they only went with a number of 450 Euros, which is about $500, so rather a “citizen’s bonus” than a basic income high enough to survive on.

      Even that much smaller proposed program was near unanimously derided by the corporate mass media (which is owned by a couple of billionaires, just like everywhere else in the “free” world).

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    Mike_SmithHamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 12:21pm

    If it didn’t fly in Switzerland, what makes you think it would catch on in a “greedier” country? Maybe it needs to be floated in Sweden or some such place, first?

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      Portlandnative1984Mike_Smith
      6/06/16 12:49pm

      Well in Switzerland people are basically taken care of anyway. Very few homeless and hungry families. If this was put before the American people it would likely win.

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      Mike_SmithPortlandnative1984
      6/06/16 1:05pm

      Ya think? I would tend to think it would be considered anathema and immoral by a lot of people, to just hand out money to “undeserving” people like that, even if it did save us money by eliminating paperwork and bureaucracy.

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    Vanguard KnightHamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 11:57am

    I don’t think the time is just right yet.

    Automated Production hasn’t eliminated enough jobs and hasn’t forced enough people into the unemployable class yet.

    You better believe that UBI will happen in homogenous countries first. Its is well known that white people (who control western countries socially and economically) have an empathy gap when it comes to people who don’t look like themselves. See Racial Bias in Others’ Pain or Whites more likely to support laws that unequally target minorities.

    In countries like the United States and Latin America where automation job losses will hit minority populations first and hardest UBI will be the last resort option.

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      Constant ColorsVanguard Knight
      6/06/16 1:45pm

      It’s the thing that makes me most despise our species though. Nothing is worth doing unless it is on the heels of a nigh apocalyptic disaster. Otherwise it’s delay and deny til the water is up to our necks and the poor are literally feasting on the rich. Even then we will only do the bare minimum to allay the fears of the groups in power.

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    Xan1567Hamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 11:45am

    23.1% support. That's amazingly bad lol. Do they not have like a basic required amount of support for something to go to a vote?

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      WhatthefoxsaysXan1567
      6/06/16 12:13pm

      they’re probably like the U.S. where you only need to get a certain number of signatures to raise a referendum.

      I spoke to a Swiss national about this last month and he basically laughed.

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    crayoneaterHamilton Nolan
    6/06/16 4:39pm

    Whats so great about switzerland?

    I don’t know, but the flags a big plus!

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      WhySoCiceroHamilton Nolan
      6/06/16 11:48am

      Ham can cross “move to Switzerland” off his career map.

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