Headline June 28, 2016/ ''' *A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR EVERYBODY! '''

''' *A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR 

EVERYBODY! '''

JUST A FEW SUNDAYS AGO, -Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to guarantee an income to its residents-

*Whether or not they are employed*,  -a radical idea that has also been raised in other countries amid an intensifying debate over wealth disparities and dwindling employment opportunities

About 77%  of voters rejected the plan to give a basic monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs, or about $2,560  to each adult-

As well as 625 francs for each child under 18-  no matter their employment status, to fight poverty and social inequality and guarantee a ''dignified'' life to everybody.  

SWITZERLAND was the first country in the world to vote on such a universal basic income plan, but other countries and cities have been either considering the idea or have implemented trial programs.

FINLAND  is set to introduce a pilot program for a random sample of 10,000 adults among its working population, who will each receive a monthly handout of  550 euros, about $625, with a view to turning the two-year trial into a national plan if it proved successful.

In DENMARK, the city of Utrecht is leading a group of municipalities that are experimenting with similar pilot projects.

In the UNITED STATES, the idea of a guaranteed income has also gained some traction in the run up to the presidential election in November. It has been promoted by some Democrats-

Who are demanding more social justice- but it also some right-wing advocates, who see it as a better alternative to government welfare programs.

In Switzerland, opponents warned that the proposal would derail an economic model that, far from showing signs of near-collapse, has allowed the country to remain among those those with the highest living standards in the world, even with a growing and an aging population.

Switzerland has an  unemployment rate of around  3.5%, less than half of the average of in the European Union.

In fact, the Swiss government and almost all the main political parties had urged voters to turn down the guaranteed income plan, warning that its implementation would require raising an additional 25 billion Swiss francs a year, either through deep spending cuts or tax increases.

Some opponents of a Swiss guaranteed income also attacked it as a return to Marxist economics, even if the idea has far older roots, dating to the 16th-century writings and works of Thomas Paine.   

AFTER WORLD WAR II, the concept of a guaranteed income was promoted as a way of redistributing income by some free market economists led by Milton Friedman.

Still, the current discussion, in Switzerland and  elsewhere, has been not only about wealth redistribution but also about how modern societies can continue to create jobs while driving technological advances such as factory robots and driverless trucks.

IN THE RUN-UP to this Sunday's vote, campaigners in favour of a guaranteed income used robots as stunts to warn what the jobless society of the future would entail.

''I understand that a new generation is worried about how and where young people will next find work, but this proposal was pure nonsense,'' said Curdin Pirovino, a Swiss industrial designer:

''You cannot give a society the idea that money is available for doing nothing.''

But at a Sunday market in Geneva, several people defended the proposal in the context of returning to a more equitable society.

*And, AND and but  :   ''One out of five people voted for the unconditional basic income, so that is a success in itself.*''

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