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The Swiss are discussing paying people $2,500 a month for doing nothing.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or In a social experiment watched by the world, Swiss may pay people $2,500 a month for doing nothing Back to video

Sweden may become the first country where citizens may have to swallow negative interest rates or be forced to spend their money in order to ‘save’ it from those rates.

Find out why

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The country will vote June 5 on whether the government should introduce an unconditional basic income to replace various welfare benefits. Although the initiators of the plan haven’t stipulated how large the payout should be, they’ve suggested the sum of 2,500 francs ($2,500) for an adult and a quarter of that for a child.

It sounds good, but — two things. It would barely get you over the poverty line, typically defined as 60 per cent of the national median disposable income, in what’s one of the world’s most expensive countries. More importantly, it’s probably not going to happen anyway.

Switzerland’s People Power

Plebiscites are a common part of Switzerland’s direct democracy, with multiple votes every year. The basic income initiative is taking place after the proposal gathered the required 100,000 signatures, though current polls suggest it won’t get any further. The idea of paying everyone a stipend has also piqued interest in other countries, such as Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, where an initial study began last year.