Switzerland is planning on voting on a proposed minimum of 2,500 Swiss franc per month (approx. $2,500) regardless if the person is working or not. Additionally, they are trying to push for children to receive 625 francs a month. If Switzerland decides to pass the bill it will be the first country in the world that allows a minimum monthly income for all of its citizens. The groups pushing the bill have stated that people will continue to work even if they could receive 2,500 Swiss francs without working. However, the proposal has received little to no support from left an right sided politicians. This can mainly be attributed to the fact that in the classical economic school of thought, if policies that are introduced to disincentivize people working, production and employments rates will drop.
I found this very interesting and progressive that Switzerland would consider doing this in order to help their lower income citizens. This goes to show how different cultures are around the world because such a bill like this in the United States would be a complete flop. However, based on what we learned about labor an unemployment in class, I feel like it would not be a good idea. This is because when people don't have incentives to work some will choose to do nothing. I feel like this will lead to many problems like unemployment rates going up, production going down, and necessity to obtain a good education going down. I feel like it is important to help out the lower income members of our society, but I also feel like everyone should work and contribute to our society. Without a reason to do contribute there are certainly some people that will choose not to.
I agree with your views Richard, and it's interesting that Switzerland are stretching this policy to kids which in a way is bad decision making because as a young child, getting into the job market early helps the individual trial and error different job settings so that later on when further education is obtained the individual will have a better idea of what job they'd like to pursue. Delivering 625 swiss francs a month would disincentive kids from the idea I described above. It comes to no surprise this idea received very little support, and that's a positive response.
ReplyDeleteJust like you said, I think this would be a disaster if the United States did this. It would really just mess us all up. But I think that a place like Sweden where their economy is decent, I think it would have a better chance than most other places. With regards to the unemployment rate, I think that it would go down, but at the same time, people who never had the opportunity to have an income and start a reputation will be able to get jobs in the long run. This will be interesting to watch if the bill is accepted.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that this is a good program that would benefit many in Switzerland. However, this program will encourage those who are unemployed to continue to be without a job, since they will have an income regardless if they are unemployed. This program will never be considered in the United States because many people would take advantage of it just like many do with other government programs.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOne of the main problems that comes with a program that pays people for not working is that they don't have to work to get paid, meaning they have no incentive to work. As we already learned in class with Unemployment Insurance, the more money they have the slower the unemployed are to find a new job, I can't imagine this would be any different in Switzerland.
ReplyDeleteApparently the bill is being sponsored by the Swiss Trades Union Confederation. To also go along with the fact that this might incentivize workers to shirk finding employment if the wages being proposed by the Swiss Trades Union are above the market wage then this would also increase unemployment. I feel there may be an ulterior motive behind the Swiss Union's proposed bill besides higher wages due to these facts.
ReplyDeleteI feel like voting on the national wage would be an extremely interesting concept. The idea might work in a country like Switzerland, but in a complex economy like the United States, the idea might not work out as well. Also, it will be really neat to see how this bill would affect unemployment rates in Switzerland.
ReplyDelete