image: 1
Swiss Referendum – Basic Income Plan Rejected
In Swiss referendum, voters have rejected
to introduce a basic income plan with 77 percent saying ‘no.’ It was premature
to hold a referendum because the contents of the plan had not been discussed
fully. So I think that rejection of the
plan is unavoidable.
Although it is quite interesting as nation-wide
social experiment, presumably the people of Switzerland are not in a positon to
accept such a high-risk experiment. Among anti-opinions are “Immigrants from
all over the world will rush in” and “Hard workers will decrease in number.”
They are understandable opinions. The immigrant issue, in particular, is difficult
to be solved. To solve this issue, it will be necessary to simultaneously introduce
basic income plan in several countries across the world.
However, the root of the problem is that
nobody will work. If a basic income plan is introduced, I am afraid that it
will decrease productivity to one-tenth.
Just imagine! You are a police officer.
There are citizens holding a demonstration in front of you. You are forced to
keep guard. You might think: “I hope they will stop demonstration as soon as
possible without any trouble.” You can make a living, whether you keep guard or
whether you quit a job. In that case, will you dare to keep guard with
difficulty?
Supposing that
you are a postman, will you faithfully get up early in the morning every day to
deliver mail as soon as possible? It is quite natural that you think: “We also
need New Year holidays as ordinary people.” Mail will not be delivered the next
day after it is put in a mail box but delivered in ten days, like in the case
of Russia. At present, society has not made such a progress that robots can
replace humans. And on top of it, we have not reached a higher level of
awareness about labor.
In that sense, I
look forward to introduction of Clifford Hugh Douglass’s
writings by “Bougainvillea Teatime.”
June
7, 2016
Masatoshi
Takeshita
Note:
Shanti-phula has indicated some parts of
the following text in black bold type or in red letters.
Translation of Twitter – June 5,
2016 –
スイスのベーシックインカムが否決されたのは27万じゃ安い、マックの時給2000円というツイートを見たが、スイスの平均月収65万4000円だってよ！ pic.twitter.com/0wvpGnoaCV— ミスターK@かず (@arapanman) 2016年6月6日
Mr. K@Kazu
@arapanman
I saw a twitter which says that Swiss plan
for basic income has been rejected for the reason that 270,000 yen per month is
small payment compared to hourly wage of 2,000 yen paid by Macdonald. I’m surprised
to learn that the average monthly income in Switzerland is 654,000 yen.
June 6, 2016 16:48
----------
English translation of a Japanese article: BougainvilleaTeatime – June 6, 2016 –
Swiss
Referendum – Basic Income Plan Rejected
On June 5, 2016, a referendum on whether to introduce a
basic income plan was held in Switzerland.
Introduction of basic income plan:
Payment of 2,500 Swiss franc (275,174 yen
at today’s exchange rate) a month to each adult and 625 Swiss franc (68,793 yen
at today’s exchange rate) for each child
It saw the result of 23 percent in favor and 77
percent opposed.
<Against the plan>
*If money is paid to all people in
Switzerland due to its high cost of living, immigrants from all over the world will
rush in.
*Hard workers will decrease in number.
<For the plan>
*Unpaid work such as housekeeping, child
rearing and caring for family should be properly paid for.
*With the progress of automation, job
itself will be lost.
The concept of basic
income has various aspects.
I wonder what work is all
about.
It is nothing special and nobody has
seriously thought of it.
Before asking whether to accept the
concept, it seems that we need to rethink about work in
depth.
There is a great man who flatly answered
the question in a positive way nearly 100 years ago.
It is Clifford Hugh Douglass.
I’m studying hard what he thought, what he
discussed, and what he proposed.
I’d like to introduce his writings on this
blog.
Please wait for a while.