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Comment by bayesianhorse | Hacker News Reader

It's not a topic in Germany at all. At least not for the majority of citizens and the parties making up at least 90% of parliament seats.

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Not true. With the exception of CSU perhaps, every party with a seat in the Bundestag either has internally passed its own concept for a basic income or is discussing the idea: [1] http://www.die-linke-grundeinkommen.de/WordPress/ [2] http://www.gruene-partei.de/cms/partei/dokbin/207/207470.auf... [3] http://www3.fdp-bundesverband.de/files/363/Abschlb-Buergerge... [4] http://www.kas.de/wf/de/33.20403/ [5] http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/wiso/06193.pdf

I have not claimed that it is wished for by a majority of the population. It is a serious thought for both the established Die Linke and the (until recently) rising Piratenpartei, and discussed at the main stage of SPD conventions. Not sure about die Grünen, but I can easily see some potential there. The peak of the idea in the public discussion was about 2-3 years ago, but obviously there is no perspective in a conservative-right-liberal coalition.

As soon as aggressions between die Linke and SPD fade away, I can easily see this as an realistic way to take.

It was a widely debated topic inside the Pirate Party during their heyday 1-2 years ago. They declared basic income as one of their core goals, which rendered them unelectable for many people and accelerated their downfall.

The Pirate Party was largely a media phenomenon. The media has a short attention span. That, and there was a long period where the party leaders were acting in a rather unclever way.

(I personally think that people should be allowed to act in that way - but the reality is that it made them very easy targets for journalists who wanted to paint a negative impression of the party.)

You are just assuming that. It certainly is a reason why I might vote for them in the coming election.

Well, I know a number of economically liberal Pirates and Pirate voters who gave up simply because of the basic income and other leftist policies.

While this clearly is just anecdotal, it might explain the bigger pattern why the Party had more success 3 years ago while it was clearly economically liberal, and while it is stagnating today where it is clearly turning more and more to the left. Younger Germans, who initially grew the Pirates, neither wished nor need yet another leftist utopia lying to voters about things they cant finance.

Basic income is leftist? If you have basic income you can do away with most of the wellfare that disincetvises people, with minimum wage that raises labor costs, perhaps even with retirement funds. Employment environment becomes so much clearer and unburdened. I'd argue that basic income is very libertarian as it liberates large amount of people from governemnt interference.

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