“This topic is on the table and it is more famous now than it was ten years ago. There will soon be another referendum and then most of the population will vote in favor of the proposal. Now we will discuss it more,” Schmidt said.
According to official data, almost 77 percent of the voters disagreed with the initiative. The revolutionary proposal called for all Swiss adults to be paid an unconditional monthly income, regardless of whether they worked or not.
Talking about why he feels the proposal was rejected, Schmidt said, “It is breaking so many rules. The normal structure is you have to work to get an income, to get a right to live. Ours is a new idea to show that this money we ask is not for nothing, it is to live. It is money to live at a basic level.”
The proposal could provide people with a more flexible life, with more opportunities to move around. It would break so many fixed opinions. The co-author of the proposal said that this would be an appropriate proposal for the future with the rise of the machines.
“In 20 years every second job will be taken over by the machines. This point of this discussion shows that we will have a new economy. We will have a global economy and more capitalism than today. So it is important for me to develop this unconditional basic economy because it strengthens civil society.”
Schmidt further said that he is happy despite the fact that the proposal was rejected because this proposal is an educational process and will encourage debate amongst the population.
“The similar pilot projects have been seen in Canada, Finland, The Netherlands, Namibia, India and even people in North Korea are interested.”
“It is not a matter of how wealthy the country is, it is a matter of how intelligent the people are and how much courage they have to face the future,” Schmidt said.
He further spoke about how his proposal to receive the income unconditionally is just a basic need and it doesn’t matter if the country in question is poor or rich.
