When I first heard about the idea of a Universal Basic Income (Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen) from a buddhist monk in 2010 I was very sceptical. A spontaneous prejudice, without knowing a thing about it. Now probably for the first time in my life I started to really dig into a political initiative to form my own opinion.
I have just finished the official book by the initiators:
I have watched the movie:
Thanks to my low information diet so far I haven’t been exposed to any external (superficial) views or opinions. Yesterday I have watched a couple of minutes of the recent SF Arena debate and I was quite surprised by the occasionally unpleasant discussion culture. How about trying to make a stronger effort to apply the concept of Deep Listening and Loving Speech for such discussions?
I have to say that I am quite inspired by the Universal Basic Income. Surely it won’t solve all problems and surely it’s not perfect. But it’s of great importance to think deeply about those things and to ask oneself: Why do I work? What would I do when I would not have to worry about generating a livelihood? What projects would I start when my usual excuses (not enough money, not enough time) fall away? Why do we focus so much on consumption and economic growth today? How could our tax system and welfare system be simplified?
I have started to think about such questions when I started with my inner work of meditation and self-reflection in 2009. And it’s fantastic that Switzerland as a whole has now the opportunity to think about such things.
More information:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedingungsloses_Grundeinkommen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income_guarantee
http://www.grundeinkommen.ch
http://www.grundeinkommen.tv
http://bedingungslos.ch
I have also just printed the petition and signed it:
http://bedingungslos.ch/index.php?id=81
I will most likely post further updates of my thought process on social networks. I might also update this blog post to resemble my current view, so you are welcome to check back again :).
Updates:
- 26.5.2012: Watched the SF Arena discussion
- 25.5.2012: Published my Amazon review about the book
