From Land Of Chocolate to Land Of Oil

By Dr. Bayad Jamal Ali

Switzerland held a referendum on the idea of basic income, the Swiss constitution would've been amended to "ensure the introduction of an unconditional basic income," which "shall enable the whole population to live in human dignity and participate in public life."

The proposal was that to provide monthly income to every Swiss citizen the amount of $2500 monthly, and it doesn’t matter how wealthy or poor the citizen is, it is a basic income for everyone.

Can you imagine what the result of the referendum was?    

77% of the voters said NO to the bill, and the idea was defeated by the voters. As they thought this free money will not only be a burden on the Swiss government, but also will decrease the country`s economic competitiveness against other countries as it will minimize the incentive to work. On the other hand, the unemployment rate in Switzerland is rather low around 3%, and has a high productivity level of culture which led to the reject of this proposal.  This is not strange on the Swiss people, as in 2012 they also rejected a bill to increase the vacation period from four weeks to six weeks.

One of the most significant weak points in Kurdistan is, and was, the massive spending of public funds with no clear fiscal policies, as well as extremely low productivity levels. And unlike the Swiss citizens, Kurds were happy to participate with their government.

In addition, the government used the hiring of public sector employees as buying votes and allegiance. And in doing so, many of these “employees” were only on paper and not contributing anything to the economic productivity but actually having more of a destructive effect. And there was a high level competition between people on getting their names as public servants and receive the cheap money.

The love for your country comes with actions not only words, when you approve and assist the mistakes of your government then you are as guilty as anyone else.