The city of Zurich is to become a test laboratory for an unconditional basic income. This requires a popular initiative, which Parliament has debated.
The idea of an unconditional basic income keeps popping up.
The city of Zurich should become a pioneer. In the spring of a year ago, a committee submitted the popular initiative “Scientific Pilot Trial Basic Income”. It’s an idea that’s been popping up on the political scene for a number of years.
The idea behind it: Instead of social assistance, unemployment benefits, IV or AHV, every citizen should only receive a basic income that accrues month after month. The idea found support in many places in the city of Zurich. Zurich’s urban districts 4 and 5 agreed to a national initiative in June 2016 – and were pretty much alone in doing so in Switzerland. Because the Swiss voters smashed the project with 76.9 percent.
Pilot test should last at least three years
So now it’s up to Zurich. The initiators call for a scientifically supported pilot test. A group of Swiss people from the city are to receive a monthly basic income as part of this project. The experiment should last at least three years, and the city should finance it.
The demand for a Zurich pilot project for an unconditional basic income is not new. A proposal to this effect was tabled in the municipal council a few years ago. But neither the city council nor the parliament heard the request at the time.
Little has changed about that – at least in the case of the city council and the civil parties in the municipal council. The city council takes the position that gainful employment is still of central importance for the creation of social prosperity as well as for individual livelihoods. The basic income, on the other hand, requires a far-reaching decoupling of livelihood security and employment. In addition, the concern does not offer any answers to the existing social challenges. In short: According to the city council, the previous social security systems are the better instruments.
Social director Raphael Golta (SP) also explained in the council that gaining knowledge is very questionable: “If you get a little more money for three years, it’s similar to when you inherit. Some go on a trip around the world, others save it.” You don’t learn much that’s new, even with scientific support.
For Golta, basic income is anything but visionary. He therefore found: “We are currently working on many important projects that should be important to us in terms of social policy. The basic income, on the other hand, has no priority.”
The project was also widely rejected by the FDP and SVP. Liberal Mélissa Dufournet said gainful employment was key. In addition, there are already similar projects elsewhere – for example in Bern. The initiative was also formulated in an extremely vague manner, which raised numerous questions about implementation and costs. “So the people would have to buy a pig in a poke.”
Samuel Balsiger (SVP) also took a hard stance on the initiators. “The cornerstone of our prosperity is not sitting around lazily, but work.” The proposal is unreasonable, a black box and a constraint. A black box, because the initiators couldn’t even name the costs for the pilot project, a constraint, because the people have already rejected the basic income. Balsiger’s advice: “Be decent with money from strangers and reject the initiative.”
On the other hand, an unconditional basic income met with goodwill on the left side of the Council. Marco Geissbühler (SP) called it a visionary project. You have to test such ideas. Because the economy in Switzerland is not developing in a more social direction. On the contrary: “Few benefit from the work of many. There are new forms of on-call work, such as bike couriers who have to deliver food under precarious conditions.”
Selina Walgis also stated that the Greens would immediately agree to an unconditional basic income. However, her party rejects the attempt called for in the initiative, because the basic income is not unconditional, but is linked to various specifications. “A select few will benefit, all others will not.” According to Walgis, it also takes more time to gain insights – at least ten years. “We reject the pilot test, but we are curious what the population will say.”
In the end, despite left-wing benevolence, a majority of parliament backed the city council and recommended the initiative be rejected. This is because SP and GLP abstained and the Greens voted no.
Attempt in Rheinau fails due to money
The idea of an unconditional basic income has come up again and again in recent years, but the experiment has always failed. In Rheinau, for example. In 2018, the community wanted to try an unconditional basic income. More than half of the people in Rheinau agreed to take part in the project. But then the basic income failed because of the money. A call for donations, which was intended to collect a little more than 6 million francs, only raised an amount of 150,000 francs.
In Zurich, the voters have the last word on this question.