“The idea of a living wage has been brewing in the country for over a year and last month, supporters of the movement dumped a truckload of eight million coins outside the Parliament building in Bern. The publicity stunt, which included a five-cent coin for every citizen, came attached with 125,000 signatures. Only 100,000 are necessary for any constitutional amendment to be put to a national vote, since Switzerland is a direct democracy.
… Similar plans have been proposed in the past. In 1968, American economist Milton Friedman discussed the idea of a negative income tax …
… ‘What would you do if you had that income?'”