People enjoy the sunny weather in front of the Niesen mountain in Neuhaus near Interlaken, Switzerland, on May 5, 2016. (Photo: Peter Schneider, EPA) 
 
 GENEVA, Switzerland — Chalk it up to Swiss affluence. Voters here will decide next month whether all 8 million citizens and legal residents should be guaranteed a generous monthly income, something no country in the world has ever done. 
 
 On June 5, Swiss voters will weigh in on a radical proposal that would mandate the government to guarantee $2,600 a month tax-free to every adult citizen and legal resident, and $650 to each child. 
 
 The payment would be provided to everyone, regardless of work status, income level, or wealth. It is a benefit few countries can afford. But then, Switzerland is among the world's richest nations, with a per capita income of about $85,000, 40% higher than that in the USA. 
 
 The idea of an unconditional basic income is not new. It is being discussed by various cities in the Netherlands, Finland, Canada, New Zealand and other nations. But Switzerland is the first country to actually vote on a guaranteed income at the national level. 
 
 The latest polls show the proposal likely will go down in defeat, though supporters say they hope to build support for it in the coming weeks. 
 
 The initiative was put on the ballot by a group of artists, writers and intellectuals who made use of Switzerland's unique system of direct democracy, which allows any citizen to bring an issue to a referendum by collecting 100,000 legitimate signatures on a petition. 
 
 "This is a great idea," said Chloe Hubert, a student at the University of Geneva. "I only work on weekends, so this income would really help." 
 
 Though Swiss salaries are among the highest in the world, supporters say the stipend would offer people an option of reducing their working hours, while maintaining a decent standard of living. 
 
 “It would lead to a more motivated workforce and more humanized, stable and productive economy,” said Che Wagner, the initiative’s co-organizer and campaign manager. 
 
 Under the proposed law, the government would guarantee that every Swiss adult has at least $2,600 in monthly income after taxes. So if a person has no income at all, he or she will receive the full amount. If the person earns $1,600 now, the supplement would be $1,000. 
 
 Marilola Wili, 21, is part of the campaign team. (Photo: Basic Income Switzerland) 
 
 Someone who currently earns, say, $6,500 month would not receive any money from the government but $2,600 of it would not be taxed. 
 
 For those getting welfare or other social benefits, payments of up to $2,600 a month would be replaced by the new basic income. Anything over this amount would continue to be provided as a separate payment and taxed accordingly. 
 
 Theoretically, a family of two non-working adults and two children at home would be eligible for $6,500 a month, or $78,000 a year tax-free. That's nearly twice the after-tax income of a typical American family. 
 
 The proposal has many critics. In a recent interview with Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, parliamentarian Raymond Clottu argued that the giveaway would "put at risk a system that motivates people to work and get training. So we should try to improve it, not bring in basic income which would destroy the motivation to work." 
 
 He and other opponents also note that financing the scheme, estimated to cost about $200 billion a year, would strain the government’s coffers. 
 
 The initiative’s backers say the plan would be funded, among other sources of revenue, by increasing Switzerland’s 8% value added tax. 
 
 The government counters that other taxes would have to rise and spending slashed to afford such a generous giveaway. 
 
 “Considerable cutbacks or tax rises would be necessary to finance this basic income, which could not replace today’s social security system entirely,” the government warns on its website, urging voters to reject the initiative. 
 
 As the concept of basic income gets traction across Europe, could a similar policy be adopted in the U.S.? 
 
 “Before it could be taken seriously, the middle class would need to experience far more job and wage loss than it has already,” Robert Reich, former U.S. secretary of Labor and now professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, told USA TODAY. 
 
 “Unfortunately, those losses are inevitable,” he added. “We'll have a serious discussion about a minimum basic income about a decade from now.” 
 
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 The idea of granting every citizen a no-strings-attached universal basic income is still treated as a utopian idea in America. In Switzerland, they’re a month away from voting on it. 
 
 The measure is not likely to pass! Still, it’s a notable step for the basic income movement. This appears to be the first time an entire nation will put the idea to a vote. The Swiss proposal would give “$2,600 a month tax-free to every adult citizen and legal resident, and $650 to each child.” The current proposal is also means-tested, meaning that those who earned more than $2,600 a month would not get the government stipend, although that part of their earnings would be tax-exempt. This makes it a not-quite universal basic income, but at least something within spitting distance of one. 
 
 If you give children nothing it would be more affordable. Think about it. They can’t vote. 
 
 This vote will probably fail, and it is thoroughly possible that the measure is not perfectly conceived anyhow. But with global economic leaders discussing “helicopter money” schemes and prominent people of all political persuasions arguing for basic income to counteract technology’s disruption of human jobs, a national vote feels like one more step on the road to legitimacy. 
 
 I hope that this free money becomes real in my lifetime and NOT after. ||||| GENEVA (AFP) - 
 
 Swiss voters Sunday will decide whether to dramatically cut immigration numbers in the name of saving the environment, in a referendum that opponents have labelled xenophobic and disastrous for the economy. 
 
 Most voters have already cast their ballots by mail, and initial results should be available shortly after polls close at noon (1100 GMT). 
 
 Surveys have shown the so-called Ecopop initiative gaining momentum in recent weeks but still indicate it is doomed to fail. 
 
 In the latest opinion poll, 56 percent said they would nix the proposal which maintains that the current influx of foreigners is swelling the Alpine nation's population and shrinking its idyllic landscapes and green spaces. 
 
 Supporters however stress that surveys often underestimate backing for populist initiatives and insist the country could be in for a surprise. 
 
 It would not be the first time. 
 
 Last February, the approval of an initiative demanding quotas for immigration from the European Union caught many off guard and threw non-member Switzerland's relations with the bloc into turmoil. 
 
 - 'Already too crowded' - 
 
 Foreign nationals already make up nearly a quarter of Switzerland's eight million inhabitants, official statistics show. 
 
 According to Ecopop, immigration is adding 1.1-1.4 percent annually to the Swiss population, putting the country on track to house up to 12 million people by 2050. 
 
 "It's already getting too crowded here," Anita Messere of the Ecopop committee said, arguing that the inhabitable plains of the mountainous country were being covered in concrete at a rate of more than one metre (yard) per second. 
 
 The campaign wants to cap immigration growth at 0.2 percent, or an addition of around 16,000 people annually, which it says would allow the number of inhabitants to increase to just 8.5 million by the middle of the century. 
 
 It also wants to help rein in over-population beyond Switzerland's borders, calling for 10 percent of the country's development aid budget to go to family planning initiatives abroad. 
 
 The government, all political parties, employers and unions have rejected the initiative, slammed by some as xenophobic and by others as a threat to Switzerland's economy which depends heavily on immigrant labour. 
 
 Christian Luescher, a parliamentarian for the Liberal Party and co-chair of the committee opposing Ecopop, described the initiative as "absolutely absurd". 
 
 "It aims to drastically, linearly and arbitrarily reduce immigration to Switzerland, with absolutely no consideration for the needs of the economy," he told AFP, warning it would "impoverish our country". 
 
 - Tax hikes for rich foreigners? - 
 
 The Swiss will also vote Sunday in two other national referenda as part of their famed direct democratic system. 
 
 Polls hint voters are also likely to reject a bid to scrap special tax breaks for rich foreigners living but not working in Switzerland, who today can choose to be levied on their spending rather than income. 
 
 Switzerland counts 5,729 millionaires and billionaires with foreign passports, who together pay around one billion Swiss francs ($1.04 billion, 830 million euros) in taxes annually. 
 
 That is a far cry from what they would have paid had they been levied at the same percentages as average Swiss taxpayers, say the left-leaning parties and unions behind the initiative. 
 
 "This system is morally indefensible," Geneva-based student Roger Gulke told AFP. 
 
 But backers of the system insist wealthy foreigners contribute substantially to Swiss tax coffers and inject huge sums directly into the local economy, warning many will leave the country if they face higher taxation. 
 
 "You'd have to be completely crazy to wave goodbye to this godsend to our economy," Luescher said. 
 
 The third issue on the table is a call to force Switzerland's central bank to increase its gold reserves and it also appears destined to fail, according to polls. 
 
 But fear of a surprise win has stirred up global gold markets, with economists warning it would wreak havoc on trading worldwide. 
 
 The initiative would oblige the Swiss National Bank to boost its gold reserves to at least 20 percent of its holdings, nearly three times more than today's level of seven percent. 
 
 Analysts have warned the bank would be forced to buy around 10 percent of the annual global gold production through 2019 to meet that requirement. 
 
 by Nina Larson 
 
 © 2014 AFP
– On June 5, Swiss voters will weigh in on a measure that's never been implemented in any country: make sure every citizen and legal resident gets $2,600, every month, tax-free ($650 for kids)—no matter what their employment situation or income level, USA Today reports. What Gawker says is perceived as the "utopian idea" of an unconditional basic income has been bandied about by individual cities in countries such as the Netherlands and Canada, but Switzerland would be the first nation to go for it. A group of Swiss intelligentsia was able to cull the 100,000 signatures required under the Swiss system to get it on the ballot. "It would lead to a more motivated workforce and [a] more humanized, stable, and productive economy," the initiative's co-founder says. The estimated $200 billion-a-year plan would be funded in part by raising the country's value-added tax (currently at 8%), its supporters say. Critics, however, say other taxes would have to rise, too, and fear the plan would sap people's motivation to work. Someone with no income would reap the full $2,600 a month tax-free, while others making some money would have their income supplemented to reach that cap (so if you already make $1,000, the government would fork over $1,600). And if you already bring in more than that $2,600 limit? That amount of your monthly income wouldn't be taxed. USA Today spells out what that would mean for two parents who didn't work with two kids at home: a combined family income, tax-free, of $78,000 a year. It doesn't appear likely the vote will go the initiative's way.