This June, Switzerland will be going to the ballot to determine whether every Swiss adult will receive $2,600 a month in perpetuum. A princely sum, far more than anybody would actually need, so this really shouldn't be called a guaranteed 'basic' income but more like a guaranteed 'supersized' income.
Because of this oversized greed, the measure is likely to fail. It's currently only polling at 40%. If they had instead asked for $1,000 a month, like I prefer, or even just $500 a month as a way to get the ball rolling and a safe test of the concept, maybe they could have gotten that extra 10% of support they needed to revolutionize the world.
Aside from the stupidly high figure, Switzerland also is one of the only countries on Earth that seriously doesn't need this measure to fight poverty and unemployment. Switzerland has a higher median income than the USA, a much better Gini Index than the USA, and an unemployment rate of just 3.7%. There just aren't that many people struggling in Switzerland, which is about as close to heaven on Earth as mankind can approach.
In abstract, I hold that Switzerland's quality of life would boom if this measure passed, because no one would have to worry about the future or forgo necessary expenses for their quality of life again. In addition, people could start families much younger, when love is still passionate and the quality of people's sperm and eggs is much higher, which would create a massive eugenic effect for future generations. Marriages would be happier and more real. None of this mercenary settling after your 11th average lover in life for just whoever's richest in your 30's. People could marry their first loves, right out of high school, secure in the knowledge that their finances are already secure and they can start a family together immediately. People they fell in love with as virgins, and stay virgins save for each other for the rest of their lives. People they fell in love with based on each other's personality and individuality, not their wealth, power or status.
We haven't had a real institution of marriage, which was meant to be the life long bonding of two virgins to each other in holy matrimony, in ages, and only the guaranteed basic income can bring it back, because capitalism as it stands requires young people to get educated and work at low level jobs for too long before they can reasonably support a family or buy their own homes. With the guaranteed basic income, housewives could still bring in sizable amounts of money while not having to get a job, giving them the perfect opportunity to have and raise kids. We could return to the male breadwinner model which is the most secure and happy relationship between men and women. With women leaving the workforce in droves because they no longer need the extra income, more job opportunities will open up for men at higher wages, and wives will be able to respect their husbands again.
But these benefits are all peripheral so people won't be concentrating on them when Switzerland votes. Instead they'll just look around and ask why on Earth anyone would need a basic income since everyone is rich and anyone who wants can get a job. A basic income would work infinitely better in the USA, where real unemployment is 20%+, the majority of children in America grow up in poverty, the Gini index is one of the worst in the world, etc. Why is Switzerland voting on this issue instead of us? We're the ones who desperately need help, not them!
Canada is testing out a basic income in Ontario, Finland is still supposedly getting ready to pass a basic income, and the sentiment is gradually rising around the world that this needs to happen. But it's all too slow to prevent the very real tragedies that are happening all around us because this law still hasn't been passed. If the basic income passes in 50 years that's seven billion people who suffered their entire lifetimes for lack of this law. This is something we needed yesterday, not 'ten years from now, maybe. . .'
The right time to have passed the basic income was under Nixon, when Congress killed the bill that our president would have signed into law. That's how close the entire history of the USA could have changed from what we know of it today. Now instead we have the worst inequality in a century, the worst workforce participation rate since the 1970's, a lower median household income than the 90's, less savings, stratospheric debts, and on and on. It's just really grim out there. Everything is dark and full of despair, to the point that whites are killing themselves off in record numbers and actually lowering our average lifespan. This is not what the future was supposed to look like. It doesn't have to look like this. All we have to do is pass the basic income, which is the cure to all economic and spiritual woes on Earth. The moment it's passed, heaven and Earth merge into one. So long as it doesn't pass, life continues to be hell for at least 1/2 of the population. In a country as rich as the USA, it's despicable that the majority of its children grow up beneath the poverty line. So much unnecessary privation. So much waste on worthless social programs which don't deliver any tangible benefits to anyone (like health care, education, and the military.) All we ever needed was the basic income, we had it in our grasp, just one vote away in the 70's, and yet here we are, with $56,000+ per capita, still living hand to mouth, with no savings and huge debts.
Someone will pass the basic income, somewhere, eventually. And when they do they will flourish so mightily that everyone will admit its divine wisdom, and like dominoes the whole world will adopt the program shortly thereafter. If just someone, anyone, would take the plunge and have the courage, we could transform the world moreso than any other change in history. The end of poverty. That would be the greatest social change in human history. No other accomplishment could hope to match it. The proudest moment in our species' lives.
Meanwhile, as we wait for the basic income to finally be passed, Hataraku Maou-sama's first 11 volumes have been translated into English. The third volume is where it picks up after the anime ends, so that's the right spot to plunge into the material.
I was sad to see Snart go in Legends of Tomorrow, he was my favorite character in the show. The actor brought so much life to his every word and expression. It was just really special whenever he was on screen. As a bonus, at least we got rid of the annoying Hawkgirl and Hawkman duo, who were boring, weak, and lacked any contribution to the group dynamic. Hopefully they never come back to the show.
Supergirl had a weak ending. (It sure was convenient all the other evil kryptonians decided to go to sleep in pods right before the last battle. . .) Flash and Arrow will be ending soon as well, hopefully on better notes.
The Warcraft movie in all the previews is looking great. Very nostalgic.
I'm up to Spice and Wolf volume 13. Just one route left, Shinonome, in Koichoco. But I can already state that Isara is by far the best girl and the only genuinely good route in the game. Chisato comes in a distant second, but the story really only exists for the sake of the Isara route. She's the only actually attractive girl in the story, someone you could imagine falling in love with. Shinonome is rude, Chisato and Michiru are messed up in the head crazies, Mifuyu is wishy-washy and untrustworthy, whereas Isara is this pure angel of light giving her all and doing her best by everyone, while still maintaining selfish goals of her own and a humorously tyrannous disposition around her little brothers. She's able to see everything from other's points of view and doesn't let anything get her down. Naturally, both her body and her voice (Mai Kadowaki) are insanely beautiful. This is a visual novel, after all. She's someone you know would never abandon and never betray you, because she radiates an inner strength and moral core that could never be swayed. She brings out the best in others and shaves away at their worst. Everyone needs their own Isara in the home. It should be a mass manufactured android. All problems on Earth would end the next day with her by our sides.
The latest Game of Thrones episode, where Daenerys burns all the dothraki chieftans alive, is pretty awesome. First good ep of the season. The rest has just been scutwork. (We all knew Jon would be revived, Sansa would escape, etc.)
The latest Fairy Tail oad is out, but it still lacks a translation. It's such a great chapter they're adapting, too. How much longer?
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