Help saving UBI-INITIATIVE

Save the universal basic income initiative!

We want a future where people are less stressed and anxious. In which we are all less vulnerable to blackmail, because our livelihoods are secure. We want people to burn out less, we want undignified petitioning to be a thing of the past, we want equal opportunities to increase and care work to finally be valued. An unconditional basic income would contribute significantly to these demands. We are currently collecting signatures for the second popular initiative:

-> Sign now: www.grundeinkommenschweiz.ch/unterschreiben

Unfortunately, the collection for the second Swiss popular initiative for an unconditional basic income (bGE) did not start with the best circumstances. Several problems led to the collection being on the verge of being cancelled twice. BUT: The initiative text is great! AND: The issue is extremely important for all of us and our future! AND: More than half of the signatures have already been collected! Therefore, in October, with the blessing of the initiative committee, a new core team of 21 people took over the further implementation of the collection in a «community takeover».

Oliviero, Maxime, Romy, Jane, Nico, Thea, Nicole, Timon, Kathrin, Rebecca, Ruedi, Ivy, Steven, Gilles, Maria, Milena, Robin, Mario and Raffael are now making the almost impossible possible: Within the remaining 3 months they want to collect the remaining 50’000 signatures together with everyone else.

This is possible, with your help! Here you can sign the initiative (if you haven’t already done so):

-> www.grundeinkommenschweiz.ch/unterschreiben

And if you want to do more, ask your friends, neighbors, relatives to sign as well. Forward the crowdfunding link to them! Collecting signatures also needs a lot of money, so we decided to do a crowdfunding to help finance the costs.

Freedom instead of powerlessness

We see an unconditional basic income as the basis for a future. This is because more people can commit themselves to the preservation of our social and natural environment and help shape our coexistence because they have the means and time to do so. A reality in which the well-being of people and nature takes center stage instead of growth and profit.

Exploding energy prices, rising rents and health insurance costs, the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, increased precarious employment, the climate crisis, loss of species, inflation, increased poverty figures, rising burnout rates and mental illness: No doubt, we live in times of great challenges.

This makes it all the more important for us to have a fundamental discussion about how we actually want to live in the future. Could it not be that it is absolutely elementary for such a society under pressure that we grant each other an existential minimum? Could we, thanks to an unconditional basic income, develop the social superpower that we absolutely need in the face of the crises? Would we thus find and implement the solutions to enable a life worth living for all for generations to come?

Without paralyzing existential fear, there is more room for innovation, creativity and more security in the population, all that a society - a country - needs to stand together in solidarity and to be able to adequately face the great crises of our time.

And - a livelihood security provides for the so urgent slowdown of life, both in our consumption and in the way we work and live. All of this is something we would soon like to debate with each other again in public. As a society, we need to demand and encourage discussion about our future (especially in the upcoming election year!). The vote on the second basic income initiative offers precisely this opportunity. That is why this popular initiative is so important and should be successful!

Democracy costs money (unfortunately)

Unfortunately, collecting signatures is not possible without money. We have

• Printing costs
• Postage costs
• Collection costs
• placement of online advertising
• targeted advertisements and inserts in selected newspapers to reach people in the first place
• Personnel costs (although not much).

Coordinating an initiative/signature collection is easily a full-time job! And - the signatures have to be notarized!

If you add it all up, one signature costs two to three francs! So we are still missing about 150’000 francs at the moment! Direct democracy is expensive!

So that we can give it our all for the remaining months, we are dependent on at least 25’000.- francs from the community. This also motivates our larger donors to raise the missing amount. To thank you for your donation, we have put together a wide range of goodies with some social enterprises. Members of the core team and the initiative committee also offer personal gifts. We hope there’s something attractive for you, too.

And don’t forget: Please sign for the Basic Income Initiative if you haven’t already: www.grundeinkommenschweiz.ch/unterschreiben