"Driving Bentleys ruined me for BMWs and their poor make quality"
Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US. Not even Switzerland's neighbours (Italy, France, Germany) with people coming from the same populations can reproduce it.
All these great states are tiny (8M people) outliers. There are more people enjoying work-life balance in America than alive in Switzerland. You could carve out multiple Switzerlands of the US if you broke it up and tightened immigration (as the Swiss are doing right now).
Reading this as a European, it's fun and telling that you focused on salary differences, whereas what mattered to me were the other quality-of-life elements (I assume you're living in the US).
To sum up, what matters to me, in what she described, were the consequences of the belief that one shouldn't be ashamed of having a life outside of work, and needing some time and peace of mind to actually enjoy it.
More money won't make me happier if I don't have holidays, week-ends, and some time during workdays to actually enjoy spending it, without being chronically on the verge of a burn-out. This is common sense in Europe, whereas it seems to be considered leftist heresy in the US.
Since 2001 I've lived and worked in Finland, Denmark & Sweden. Achieving a healthy & meaningful work-life balance is emphasized in the Nordic countries (I do not know about Luxembourg) The authors experience in Switzerland strikes a familiar chord with me. I have close friends in the Valley who envy me because I get 6 weeks a year off. I don't think this article is necessarily about high salaries and the luxuries you can afford with that salary (and I'm not saying that that was what you were saying) but I have come to believe that there is a better work-life balance in certain northern european countries than anywhere in the U.S.A (I'm willing to be corrected of course) especially when it comes to maternity and paternity leave. In discussions like these, I am reminded of a video my American friend sent me a while ago :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzXze5Yza8
> Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US.
You have to be kidding me. The average standard of living in the US is not the fourth best in the world. The US only got universal heathcare this century, it has a ludicrous work-life balance, the minimum wage in some states is very low (and sometimes includes tipping!), the infant mortality rate is lower than some third world countries, and maternity and paternity leave almost doesn't exist.
The three first Google results for 'Quality of Life index' put the USA at the 16, 12 and 10th place.
While salary in Italy, France and Germany may not be as high as in Switzerland, they all have longer maternity leave, bigger number of vacation, better public transportation and better benefits than in the USA
Basically every country in Europe will give you longer vacations, standard health care, shorter working hours, ...
In some countries you might even get worker's rights like workers councils, unions on the board, ... If you work for example for Volkswagen, every factory in the world will have strong unions, only the US factory won't.
I think you're getting entirely the wrong message from the article.
It's not about whether it's possible to reproduce Switzerland's standard of living in America. It's about asking some difficult questions about the fundamental aspects of American work culture and how they can be changed for the better.
For example, why isn't there mandatory paid maternity and paternity leave in America? Why does the culture essentially force people to choose between careers and family?
It's funny because you show inappropriate content on TV and everyone goes "think of the children!" and loses their minds, but no one bats an eye when mommy and daddy has to work 60+ hours a week each and has no time to spend with their kid.
Actually the average European enjoys a way better living standard than the average American. Just take a look at healthcare system in the US. A disease in the US could ruin a family in Europe is taken care by the state... Same goes for education, etc.
Well you have to remember that the Swiss have both better income sources (assisting the world's wealthy & many corporations evade/optimize taxes for instance) and don't have military expenses and such due to neutrality.
While many problems of the US are of its own creation due to either ideology or wealth dominating politics (healthcare & education spring to mind), it is quite unfair to compare what the Swiss government provides with the US.
> Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US.
If you're judging by average income. The wealth distribution is so off in the US that you'll find several dozens of countries where people in the low middle class are much better off.
Also looking at PPP per capita (59K vs 53K), it's not that much higher. Norway, I'm not sure should count given their large oil reserves which one cannot really replicate.
>Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US. Not even Switzerland's neighbours (Italy, France, Germany) with people coming from the same populations can reproduce it.
Sure, but the standard on living on most of the things she mentions is better than the US in lots of others European countries, even if they're not as high as Switzerland...
>All these great states are tiny (8M people) outliers. There are more people enjoying work-life balance in America than alive in Switzerland
That's beside the point, since that "work-life balance" is enjoyed by the overwhelming majority in Switzerland -- whereas that's not true for ANY city of comparable size in the US.
I'd agree that Switzerland would probably be considered an outlier and difficult to reproduce. However, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Austria? I would put Germany in there, too.
And they all are known as tax havens except for Norway which has half a million dollars of oil reserves per citizen :).
But I do think the article is right in pointing out a lack of options in the U.S. if you want to live a lifestyle that doesn't center around work. I love writing software but 40 hours a week + 5 hours of commute + 6 hours of software practice + recovery time seems to me to not leave enough time for enjoying the parts of life that don't involve compiling.
Standard of living has barely any useful meaning. The US has a relatively high standard of living sure but in practice you only get to enjoy that, if you are at least middle class.
In Switzerland or anywhere else in Europe (excluding the east) you enjoy all the benefits mentioned in the article no matter what income or job you happen to have.
you may say the right thing. But there are too many things they did right in democratic, business or welfare aspects that one should ask what they have to teach us to make the hundred millions of Americans live better. There are smaller and bigger countries doing things worse than Switzerland, so size of population is not a reason to ignore them.
Not only that but they[1] didn't bother to copy and paste the author's name. It's seems extra obnoxious to copy the entire article but not the author's name and two sentence bio.
I grew up very poor in the U.S. Poor as in, my single mom earned $6000 / year with little federal benefits to raise four kids. But, now, I'm in my late 30s and very successful. So, in that regard, I love the U.S. For the upper middle class and wealthy, the U.S. is like an adult playground. And, I don't mind the long hours of work; I still get plenty of work-life balance.
But, honestly, the only way that this occurs (unless born rich) is if one is smart, ambitious, hard-working, cunning, and lucky. If one is poor and doesn't have those attributes, they'll have a very hard time here. For instance, intelligence will not get one very far, alone. I grew up gifted and talented. All of my siblings were also gifted and talented. But, of my family and classmates, only 20% made it out of poverty. In that way, the U.S. is quite horrible.
> Instead of taxing salaries at high percentages — a practice that puts most of the tax burden on the middle class, where most income comes from wages and not from capital gains — Switzerland immediately taxes dividends at a maximum of 35 percent and also has a wealth-based tax.
That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their electorate: They do referendums often and for any reason (building a bridge or allowing foreigners to work in their country). There is a sort of just distribution of social responsibility which unfortunately lacks elsewhere.
If you look for the city with highest living standard in the world though, it's not in Switzerland but right next to it, the beautiful Vienna :-)
As a French living in the US, I share your sentiment. Western Europe's quality of life is ridiculously high, I am not sure if that is reflected very much in the way we measure QoL but that's my experience.
I thought that public transportations in Paris sucked, that was before I had to ride BART. Same goes for homelessness, crimes etc... I love SF, there is a ton of amazing places to hang out at etc.. but damn, I do miss Paris.
I think living anywhere other than your home country for a while is a valuable experience. You learn to not only recognise the flaws in your own country (which you can then push to improve), but you also learn to appreciate what you previously took for granted.
It's cute that she even provides numbers and leaves this out. This is the only number you need to know. Everything else is the direct result of this.
You know who else does awesome? A closed community of multi-millionaires in the USA. Except you're not a part of that elite. Somehow, you got to be part of the European elite (anyone who lives in Switzerland) and feel like the rest of the world can magically live like that. No, that lifestyle is at the expense of the rest of the world.
In Europe, many, many people were essentially slaves. They were property of a small class of landed gentry who ruled over them with, at best, patriarchal indifference and at worst homicidal, spiteful authoritarianism.
They were peasants.
Then, over the course of about 200 years, some of these gentry got their heads chopped off or were stripped of their papal lands or were rounded up and put in front of a firing squad and thrown down a well.
But there were still plenty of gentry left, and so a deal was struck: we (the peasants) get old age pensions and some trifling property ownership and a handful of other "benefits" and protections, and you get to retain the landed class privileges you've constructed and ... we promise not to chop your heads off.
Ok, deal.
The european social model is not the result of sophisticated empathy and communalism. It's a deal made fair and square - you stop treating us like cattle, and we won't revolt and murder you and your children.
But there's a converse to all of this ...
What if a population was not systematically enslaved and disenfranchised for, oh, say, 2000 years ? What if there is not an intricate system of landed class and privilege and you build the social and welfare state first ?
The deal still gets made, it just gets made in reverse.
You want cradle to grave welfare and benefits ? Fine. These folks over here will give it to you (the money has to come from somewhere, after all) but they will absolutely assert a system of privilege and class benefits. You won't like it. It's "unamerican". Those consequences will be unintended, but there's no way to leave that equation out of balance.
For start "lunch hour" is mandatory and in reality it means you spend extra hour at work. I would rather spend a hour with my kid than eating with my boss.
Second the taxation leaves various compulsory "contributions": social, pension, wealth, tv, petrol etc. It is not 5% but more likely 50% of average salary.
And third, I have totally different experience with american companies. All american corporations I worked for had strong life-work balance, holidays etc.
While I agree with many of the sentiments in the article, I don't think a comparison of wages is entirely fair. Some small nations have an out-sized GDP per capita such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Singapore because of their large financial industries. These industries are possible because the countries attract wealth and the wealthy through very low taxes(like Singapore) or very strong banking secrecy laws. And while bringing in a large amount of wealth can lead to a GDP per capita for boost small countries its not reproducible when a country is the size of the United States.[0]
[0] - Because if every billionaire in the world moved to the U.S. it would barely move the needle on wealth per capita unlike Singapore, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.
Although Switzerland and America may have very different work cultures and social support policies, that's not the most obvious difference. Consider our per-capita GDPs (2013, nominal dollars)[1]:
Switzerland 84,748
United States 53,042
So even if the US passed new employment laws and embraced work-life balance, we would still have only 63% of Switzerland's money to spend on each person. I'm not saying that the US couldn't improve its working conditions, but its unavoidable that a wealthier nation will have resources to treat its working class well.
Switzerland is the closest to paradise a state can get. Much more libertarian on the business side than its European neighbours, much more welfare than USA and most other countries that are business friendly. All that with having the most democratic system in the world. Did you know that the 4 major political parties are all in the government together - by mutual agreement? Do you know that all three months they vote on whatever they think is important? That is why that country is so stable. All that with a clean superb environment, beautiful countryside and diversity baked into every citizen (4 official languages in one country...). Switzerland never seizes to amaze me. Hope to move there next year (and yes, the salaries are enormous... while rents are high in absolute money, they are low relative to the salaries paid).
Nobody here mentions anying about the very peculiar banking system that let the swiss economy get a huge chunk of the illegaly made money of the world?
Of course, you can have a very generous social security system and a great transport infrastructure when you've been financed by crime for decades.
It's probably not the only reason of course, and we surely have many smart things to learn from this country.
I'm Swiss and I have been working in the US for a few years and some prejudices resonate with me. However, there are also some explanations for this:
Xenophobia: Swiss are probably less xenophobic than other countries I have experienced (including the US where I was mildly surprised about some things. Of course you shouldn't tell it loudly at your work-place). About one third of the population in Switzerland are foreigners and the number has been strongly increasing in the last few years. I think Swiss are fed up about "soldiers" (aka expats) and other foreigners that don't want to integrate. I had some bosses that didn't speak German and also didn't understand that some things are socially unacceptable. Unlike other countries, there is rarely violence towards foreigners.
Banks: I worked in banking. Other countries do the same as Switzerland. When you go to a German bank just over the border as a Swiss until recently, they will tell you that you can hide your money there and tax authorities in Switzerland won't know. I won't speak of Delaware, Miami, Singapore, Hong Kong and all these other places. The US is well-know for having ambiguous policies. Bankers in Miami are specialized in taking money from Latin America.
Prices: Prices are a lot higher for certain things. You can go shopping in Germany to save money. Some other items, e.g. electronics, are cheaper except for the US. Expect to pay high prices for rent, meat, vegetable, other fixed costs (health insurance, electricity etc.). However, the money left after your fixed costs is a lot more than the average person in another country. And to revert back to xenophobia, there are foreigners that somehow are unaware of the prices and accept low offers. Swiss don't like them very much.
Working: I worked in New York (not the US I know). I worked on a fixed two-year contract, so I couldn't be terminated. My US colleagues had an at-will contract. I always thought it crazy what my colleagues were willing to put up with. When they got a better offer, they just disappeared within a few days. But I had to adapt because I was the foreigner and the Swiss nowadays also expect you better adapt and integrate (see xenophobia) or you better leave Switzerland.
Although I lived in the US for some time, I'm a strong supporter of limiting the number of foreigners in Switzerland. It's not in Switzerland's interest but more in the interest of employers who try to take advantage of it.
"Now that I’m back, I’m angry that my own country isn’t providing more for its people."
If you want Switzerland in the U.S. there is only one option: break the U.S. up into distinct, smaller countries that are able to foster a common culture that can be relied upon to solve the prisoners dilemma inherent in all social welfare schemes.
A side benefit for our friends abroad: maybe we'll stop bombing the shit out of the rest of the world.
Interesting read but I think the author makes a false conclusion that taxes on wealth is better than taxes on income. If the US income-based tax system really were progressive in practice, then you could compare apples to apples. A wealth-based system could be just as non-progressive if there were similar ways around paying your fair share like there is in the US.
Given systems that are equally difficult to circumvent, the type of taxes that would be most beneficial are those that don’t punish earning income and saving and investing money. Things like sales taxes, consumption taxes, and transaction taxes discourage consumption and also discourage financial system manipulation by the super-wealthy.
But I think the Swiss succeed despite this because they have a much more compassionate view towards their fellow citizens and are willing to pay higher taxes if it’s used for things that genuinely make people lives better rather than line the pockets of big business and cronies. Also, US workers have a terrible work ethic and an adversarial relationship with their employers. If you feel you should get more out an employer than you give them, you’re not really understanding how the system works. If you provide high productivity and there is mutual interest in the company succeeding, then taking time off or working a normal work schedule is not anything an employer would need to argue about. A company has to make money in order to hire people. They aren’t a public service. If you’re not productive, then you are probably going to have to work longer hours so that the company can succeed enough to keep your job.
And in general, Americans are greedy. It’s what brought people here as a young country and it’s in our DNA. What works in Switzerland probably can’t really work here. But what actually could work is to use economic incentives to try to encourage a healthier economy. Instead, we waste our time thinking that taxing the rich more is the solution to everything. Sure, they should pay more than lower income people do, but it’s a multi-layered problem.
[+] [-] blfr|10 years ago|reply
Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US. Not even Switzerland's neighbours (Italy, France, Germany) with people coming from the same populations can reproduce it.
All these great states are tiny (8M people) outliers. There are more people enjoying work-life balance in America than alive in Switzerland. You could carve out multiple Switzerlands of the US if you broke it up and tightened immigration (as the Swiss are doing right now).
[+] [-] fab13n|10 years ago|reply
To sum up, what matters to me, in what she described, were the consequences of the belief that one shouldn't be ashamed of having a life outside of work, and needing some time and peace of mind to actually enjoy it.
More money won't make me happier if I don't have holidays, week-ends, and some time during workdays to actually enjoy spending it, without being chronically on the verge of a burn-out. This is common sense in Europe, whereas it seems to be considered leftist heresy in the US.
[+] [-] hans0l074|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noja|10 years ago|reply
You have to be kidding me. The average standard of living in the US is not the fourth best in the world. The US only got universal heathcare this century, it has a ludicrous work-life balance, the minimum wage in some states is very low (and sometimes includes tipping!), the infant mortality rate is lower than some third world countries, and maternity and paternity leave almost doesn't exist.
[+] [-] staz|10 years ago|reply
While salary in Italy, France and Germany may not be as high as in Switzerland, they all have longer maternity leave, bigger number of vacation, better public transportation and better benefits than in the USA
[+] [-] lispm|10 years ago|reply
In some countries you might even get worker's rights like workers councils, unions on the board, ... If you work for example for Volkswagen, every factory in the world will have strong unions, only the US factory won't.
[+] [-] enraged_camel|10 years ago|reply
It's not about whether it's possible to reproduce Switzerland's standard of living in America. It's about asking some difficult questions about the fundamental aspects of American work culture and how they can be changed for the better.
For example, why isn't there mandatory paid maternity and paternity leave in America? Why does the culture essentially force people to choose between careers and family?
It's funny because you show inappropriate content on TV and everyone goes "think of the children!" and loses their minds, but no one bats an eye when mommy and daddy has to work 60+ hours a week each and has no time to spend with their kid.
[+] [-] atmosx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsync|10 years ago|reply
I really do love switzerland, but a proper comparison would be to say, Marin County or Boulder or La Jolla.
I think our pockets of "switzerland" stand up pretty well in comparison.
[+] [-] namenotrequired|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sfi81|10 years ago|reply
While many problems of the US are of its own creation due to either ideology or wealth dominating politics (healthcare & education spring to mind), it is quite unfair to compare what the Swiss government provides with the US.
[+] [-] Vespasian|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _pmf_|10 years ago|reply
If you're judging by average income. The wealth distribution is so off in the US that you'll find several dozens of countries where people in the low middle class are much better off.
[+] [-] orestisfl|10 years ago|reply
Switzerland 2,335,059 immigrants, 28.9% of population
United States 45,785,090 immigrants, 14.3% of population
[+] [-] hessenwolf|10 years ago|reply
Actually, more than the working conditions, the Americans didn't want to go back because of the guns.
[+] [-] letitgo12345|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|10 years ago|reply
Sure, but the standard on living on most of the things she mentions is better than the US in lots of others European countries, even if they're not as high as Switzerland...
>All these great states are tiny (8M people) outliers. There are more people enjoying work-life balance in America than alive in Switzerland
That's beside the point, since that "work-life balance" is enjoyed by the overwhelming majority in Switzerland -- whereas that's not true for ANY city of comparable size in the US.
[+] [-] pbreit|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JamesBarney|10 years ago|reply
But I do think the article is right in pointing out a lack of options in the U.S. if you want to live a lifestyle that doesn't center around work. I love writing software but 40 hours a week + 5 hours of commute + 6 hours of software practice + recovery time seems to me to not leave enough time for enjoying the parts of life that don't involve compiling.
[+] [-] erpellan|10 years ago|reply
Not so much disagreeing as pointing out that condensing something as complex as living standards into a league table is a somewhat absurd reduction.
[+] [-] DasIch|10 years ago|reply
In Switzerland or anywhere else in Europe (excluding the east) you enjoy all the benefits mentioned in the article no matter what income or job you happen to have.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rhizome|10 years ago|reply
It would be more meaningful to boil it down to a different ratio. Even per-capita would represent the differences better.
[+] [-] mmaunder|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vilmosi|10 years ago|reply
How is this even remotely relevant to the discussion?
[+] [-] geff82|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Havoc|10 years ago|reply
Thats a little bit disingenuous comparing absolute numbers of countries with very different sizes.
I do agree that they're outliers though - seems very difficult to duplicate.
[+] [-] cjsthompson|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] simonw|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cantrevealname|10 years ago|reply
[1] https://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/living-i...
(I'm mentioning the original link--so this comment makes sense--in case the HN moderators later change the link to the real article on Vox.)
[+] [-] ap22213|10 years ago|reply
But, honestly, the only way that this occurs (unless born rich) is if one is smart, ambitious, hard-working, cunning, and lucky. If one is poor and doesn't have those attributes, they'll have a very hard time here. For instance, intelligence will not get one very far, alone. I grew up gifted and talented. All of my siblings were also gifted and talented. But, of my family and classmates, only 20% made it out of poverty. In that way, the U.S. is quite horrible.
[+] [-] atmosx|10 years ago|reply
That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their electorate: They do referendums often and for any reason (building a bridge or allowing foreigners to work in their country). There is a sort of just distribution of social responsibility which unfortunately lacks elsewhere.
If you look for the city with highest living standard in the world though, it's not in Switzerland but right next to it, the beautiful Vienna :-)
[+] [-] evilhaskeller|10 years ago|reply
I thought that public transportations in Paris sucked, that was before I had to ride BART. Same goes for homelessness, crimes etc... I love SF, there is a ton of amazing places to hang out at etc.. but damn, I do miss Paris.
[+] [-] phaemon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexashka|10 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Switzerland#Banking
It's cute that she even provides numbers and leaves this out. This is the only number you need to know. Everything else is the direct result of this.
You know who else does awesome? A closed community of multi-millionaires in the USA. Except you're not a part of that elite. Somehow, you got to be part of the European elite (anyone who lives in Switzerland) and feel like the rest of the world can magically live like that. No, that lifestyle is at the expense of the rest of the world.
[+] [-] rsync|10 years ago|reply
They were peasants.
Then, over the course of about 200 years, some of these gentry got their heads chopped off or were stripped of their papal lands or were rounded up and put in front of a firing squad and thrown down a well.
But there were still plenty of gentry left, and so a deal was struck: we (the peasants) get old age pensions and some trifling property ownership and a handful of other "benefits" and protections, and you get to retain the landed class privileges you've constructed and ... we promise not to chop your heads off.
Ok, deal.
The european social model is not the result of sophisticated empathy and communalism. It's a deal made fair and square - you stop treating us like cattle, and we won't revolt and murder you and your children.
But there's a converse to all of this ...
What if a population was not systematically enslaved and disenfranchised for, oh, say, 2000 years ? What if there is not an intricate system of landed class and privilege and you build the social and welfare state first ?
The deal still gets made, it just gets made in reverse.
You want cradle to grave welfare and benefits ? Fine. These folks over here will give it to you (the money has to come from somewhere, after all) but they will absolutely assert a system of privilege and class benefits. You won't like it. It's "unamerican". Those consequences will be unintended, but there's no way to leave that equation out of balance.
After all, a deals a deal.
[+] [-] jkot|10 years ago|reply
For start "lunch hour" is mandatory and in reality it means you spend extra hour at work. I would rather spend a hour with my kid than eating with my boss.
Second the taxation leaves various compulsory "contributions": social, pension, wealth, tv, petrol etc. It is not 5% but more likely 50% of average salary.
And third, I have totally different experience with american companies. All american corporations I worked for had strong life-work balance, holidays etc.
[+] [-] JamesBarney|10 years ago|reply
[0] - Because if every billionaire in the world moved to the U.S. it would barely move the needle on wealth per capita unlike Singapore, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.
[+] [-] benkuykendall|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=switzerland+vs+united+s...
[+] [-] geff82|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ohsnap|10 years ago|reply
https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Switzerland:_A_parasite_feeding_o...
[+] [-] bsaul|10 years ago|reply
Of course, you can have a very generous social security system and a great transport infrastructure when you've been financed by crime for decades.
It's probably not the only reason of course, and we surely have many smart things to learn from this country.
[+] [-] asdfologist|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xyz03|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] carsongross|10 years ago|reply
If you want Switzerland in the U.S. there is only one option: break the U.S. up into distinct, smaller countries that are able to foster a common culture that can be relied upon to solve the prisoners dilemma inherent in all social welfare schemes.
A side benefit for our friends abroad: maybe we'll stop bombing the shit out of the rest of the world.
[+] [-] colordrops|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] valleyhut|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pluckytree|10 years ago|reply
Given systems that are equally difficult to circumvent, the type of taxes that would be most beneficial are those that don’t punish earning income and saving and investing money. Things like sales taxes, consumption taxes, and transaction taxes discourage consumption and also discourage financial system manipulation by the super-wealthy.
But I think the Swiss succeed despite this because they have a much more compassionate view towards their fellow citizens and are willing to pay higher taxes if it’s used for things that genuinely make people lives better rather than line the pockets of big business and cronies. Also, US workers have a terrible work ethic and an adversarial relationship with their employers. If you feel you should get more out an employer than you give them, you’re not really understanding how the system works. If you provide high productivity and there is mutual interest in the company succeeding, then taking time off or working a normal work schedule is not anything an employer would need to argue about. A company has to make money in order to hire people. They aren’t a public service. If you’re not productive, then you are probably going to have to work longer hours so that the company can succeed enough to keep your job.
And in general, Americans are greedy. It’s what brought people here as a young country and it’s in our DNA. What works in Switzerland probably can’t really work here. But what actually could work is to use economic incentives to try to encourage a healthier economy. Instead, we waste our time thinking that taxing the rich more is the solution to everything. Sure, they should pay more than lower income people do, but it’s a multi-layered problem.
[+] [-] bmelton|10 years ago|reply
From what I've heard, that is predominately only true so long as their fellow citizens are sufficiently "like them".