Never? 126,000 Swiss people formally requested a referendum about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income#Switzerland

>I doubt it.

Well what else are we going to do with the millions of people that will literally become unemployable due to automation?

It's definitely a solution, but I would posit it's more well known among the intellectual set than the general populace as a popular idea. You don't need to have a large core group to bring it up in a swiss election, and on the surface it's pretty easy to market to the typical person. 'Free money, hell yes!' is pretty easy to sell, or for the welfare recipient 'Welfare money without dealing with demeaning bureaucrats, hell yes!'

>I would posit it's more well known among the intellectual set than the general populace as a popular idea.

I agree. It does not have wide spread acceptance. Or even wide spread awareness. What I'm saying though (and I think we agree here) is that this is happening...whether the public likes it or not...we as humanity are barreling towards this..social factors will force basic income into existence one way or the other. Thats why I'm saying "This is happen".

Oh and this is coming from someone who will be excluded from any basic income criteria...