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LAST SUNDAY, Swiss voters defeated a ballot initiative that would have required their government to pay every Swiss citizen $2,500 a month, no questions asked. That electoral setback is far from a death knell for basic income in Europe, however. In Finland, the center-right government is test­ing a plan that could pay all Finns about $870 a month. In Britain, the Neth­er­­lands and elsewhere, politi­cians are discussing simi­lar schemes, and popular interest is spreading.

But America isn’t Europe, and whatever the odds of basic income taking hold there, they’re a lot lower here. Most European countries already have gener­ous welfare states, with no shame or stigma attached to them. There, basic income is viewed as a way to simplify, not expand, the existing welfare state. Cut out the bureau­crats and the qualifying tests, and just give every­one cash to use as they wish.

The situation is quite different in the United States. Here, efforts over the years to build a welfare state have con­sist­ently been thwarted by Ameri­ca’s prefer­ence for individual self-reli­ance, distaste for government, and racism. The re­sult is a safety net so stingy and hard to navigate that many who are eli­gible don’t even bother. To shift from that to a basic income for every­one would be an extraordinary leap, the mere thought of which pushes two potent American hot but­tons: (1) fear that our work ethic will be undermined, and (2) dread that our taxes will soar.