Digitization and the resulting automation are leading to major upheavals in our work environment. Ting meets this change with a community that allows its members time for further development. Through a joint account, members share more than a quarter of a million Swiss francs every year in order to secure themselves financially during personal advancement.
Structural changes call for new solutions
The digital transformation is rapidly changing our working world: professions, but also the way we work are changing fundamentally: Digital technologies can automate more and more jobs. This means, for example, that a self-checkout instead of a cashier, or a chatbot instead of a lawyer work for us. The OECD assumes that more than every tenth job is already at risk of being automated. The question now is how we as a society deal with it. What happens to the people who have previously practiced these professions?
But automation is not the only challenge. Digital transformation is also changing existing professions. The job profile of a marketing specialist looks very different today than it did five years ago. For example, social media skills are required for which there was no need before. How can people keep up with this rapid change?
Then there is the “great resignation”. This is the phenomenon that more and more people are quitting their jobs because they are dissatisfied with them and want better working conditions. There are many reasons for this, ranging from exhaustion and low wages to a lack of meaningfulness in the job. How do we as a society deal with this?
This structural change in the world of work demands personal and professional development for many people. This can be a career change, a reorientation, a sabbatical, or an apprenticeship. All of this requires enough time and money. But not everyone has both. Dealing with these developments is a challenge. Nonetheless, since this change is of a structural nature, social systems must also be reconsidered.
A new solidarity system as a solution
We meet this challenge with a completely new and radical future experiment: Ting. At Ting, over 350 members share more than CHF 25,000 every month (as of Nov. 2023) to enable each other to develop further with basic financial security. Every member has the opportunity to submit a project (e.g. changing jobs, becoming self-employed or setting up a start-up) and receive a community basic income for up to six months of up to a maximum of CHF 2,500 to work on said project.
At Ting, people safeguard each other so that they can start further development if necessary. This allows members to pursue what inspires them and makes them happy without financial pressure. This turns structural change from a burden into an opportunity for positive change. Ting not only promotes intrinsically motivated projects but also the opportunity to shape our future. Because the members do not use the money for selfishly driven self-realization, but for projects that help us as a society. Ramona Schwarz, for example, took the step into self-employment and developed sustainable period panties. Other members have founded food cops or permaculture platforms and are committed to preserving biodiversity.
Ting Community Event 2022
Gain new insights with the future experiment
Ting is a future experiment. It examines an approach to how we could deal with the challenging, structural change in our working world. It is testing a future with a new kind of solidarity system that not only enables reactive (e.g. unemployment insurance) but also proactive action. Ting makes a possible future tangible today. Further, in cooperation with universities, it researches what this experiment does to people and our society. From this, we collect new findings and make them available to the public. The experiment wants to show that it is not only possible but desirable to think differently about the community and our relationship with work. While Ting is not the solution to the problem it is intended to show that it is about time to think differently about social security.
Even the weekend and the AHV were once utopian. I want to be there when we make the next utopia a reality together.
Flurin Hess
Dezentrum
Ting is a life changer
Ting has been able to pay out community basic income for more than 160 months (as of Nov. 2022). The recipients describe Ting’s support as a “life changer” (Peter H.). Ting has already enabled numerous advancements that might otherwise never have come about. But it's not just those who receive community basic income who benefit from Ting. Even members who have not funded development with Ting feel braver, safer, and happier because they're covered.
Above all, Ting took away the psychological stress of how I financed the early days.
Ramona Schwarz
Ting member, who launched the RAYNE period panties.
Dezentrum as co-founder
The Basic Income Association and Dezentrum developed Ting together and secured the financing. After its founding in 2020, we built Ting with a team of four and then transferred it to an independent team.
Foundation of Ting 2020
What Ting has to do with basic income
We consider an unconditional basic income to be a worthwhile solution for structural change in the work environment. The issue has been politically deadlocked since it was rejected at the ballot box in 2014. There are hardly any well-founded debates on the topic and supporters as well as critics only speculate about the effects of a UBI. Ting wants to create new facts that advance the topic or lead to new solutions. Ting is not directly about an unconditional basic income. However, it tests an important aspect of it: What does it do to people when they have basic financial security?
