Project

Rheinau as a Village

“The local council is of the opinion that the idea of the Unconditional Basic Income deserves to be tested. The council also takes into account that 25% of the population in Rheinau voted yes when Switzerland could vote for the UBI in 2016. In addition, the local council strongly believes that the planned experiment will not cause any financial disadvantage for Rheinau and its inhabitants. Therefore the council has decided to encourage the population to participate in the experiment in 2019.”

Mai 2018, Gemeinderat Rheinau

Das Experiment

What future do you want?
Do you want to say:
You have to work for money to be able to live.
Or do you want to say:
You get money to live, to be able to work..

During the experiment the amount of the Basic Income depends on the age of the participants::

  • 0-18 Jahre: Fr. 625.—
  • 18-22 Jahre: Fr. 1’250.—
  • 22-25 Jahre: Fr. 1’875.—
  • über 25 Jahre: Fr. 2’500.—

Each participant of the experiment will be paid a basic income at the beginning of the month. If the participant doesn’t have any other income during the month, he or she can keep the basic income in total. In case the participant has some income (salary, pension, social benefits), he or she must pay this income back up to the maximum amount of the basic income at the end of the month.

In other words, if a person earns less than the basic income per month, they will reimburse that income at the end of the month. The participant nevertheless will have more money then before. If the person earns more income than the basic income, he or she will reimburse the entire amount of the basic income.

In summary this means that every participant over the age of 25 has at least CHF 2,500 per month at their disposal, either through their own wages, pension, social benefits or through the payment of the unconditional basic income.

If more than half of the inhabitants say yes, we’ll continue with the project. Furthermore we know how much money has to be organized. 

To get the money, we’ll organize a crowd funding. Your investment in the project not only makes you a village-patron but you’ll actively contribute that the experiment actually happens.

At this moment in time we’re planning on doing the experiment for 
one year.

bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen

Not Additional Money

The Basic Income is not an additional, but a basic monthly income. Like the name indicates:
it is a “basic” income, so that no one has to live in existential fear anymore.

Unconditional

The Basic Income is unconditional because this income is not conditional or rewarded

Purpose of Basic Income

It shall be high enough that a dignified life and participation in public life is possible

social benefits

In reality, the Basic Income should not replace all social benefits only those, which are lower or as high as the Basic Income. The right to higher social benefits remains untouched.

Unsere Ziele

New Future

We want to test a possible new future as realistic as possible. This requires pioneers who dare and try it out. Best case: we can encourage people to discuss about the idea of the basic income because we are convinced that a system change must come from the people. Not prescribed from a government.

Main Focus

We want to test how the basic income affects an existing community. What happens to the people? And in the community?

Insights

We want to generate data and information for the international discourse.
The planned film should also contribute to the discourse and encourage people to think about what kind of future they want.

Re-think together

It is important for us to mention that our model and the amount of the Basic Income may still change after the 31st of August. Only then the villagers will be able to comment on it and it is central for us to work out the experiment together with the villagers and the local council.

Film

A film crew will also accompany the experiment. On one hand, Rebecca Panian documents the creation of the experiment; on the other hand she gets to the bottom of our current system and examines the idea of the basic income.
The driving force behind the film is the question of how we want to live in the future. It’s a question of high social relevance, which the film wants to present to a national and international audience.

Mehr Infos