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91 comments:
By all means, move back to Switzerland.
An article all about her and what she gets with no discussion of the financial implications for Switzerland, the source of its funds or the long term picture. All the oohing and aahing of public transportation where the population is concentrated due to geographic constraints which make public transport more efficient. If she whines about Chicago with it's relatively good public transport, she should spend some time in Houston.
I wonder if she complains about the very strict immigration policies?
The non-diverse population?
The racism?
The mandatory military service till 40?
The high cost of living that eats up the high wages?
In the 1990's, I worked in Europe for my US client. Germany was a lot like the article describes Switzerland. Well educated workforce and productive. Meetings started on time and ended on time.
Portugal, in contrast, was more like a third-world country. A meeting scheduled for 10 AM (very early in the morning for Portugal based businesses) would start around 10:45 when some of the attendees showed up, but wouldn't really get going until 11 or so. Pretty much the same in Italy and Spain from my experience. Keeping projects on schedule was a real struggle.
France was a mix - good people, well educated, but with a 35 hour work week and vacation schedule, and less of a sense of we need it done on X date than Germany but much better than Spain or Portugal.
One interesting "perk" in Spain was that we had an afternoon "break" where a waiter would wheel around a cart with brandy or wine and pastries.
Overall, productivity in Germany and US, from my experience, wasn't much different, except we seemed to get by with fewer meetings in Germany.
But, Switzerland isn't very diverse! You can't have good things without diversity.
All hail diversity.
Diversity is king.
Consider the top five ethnically and culturally diverse nations:
1: Papua New Guinea
2: Tanzania
3: Congo
4: Uganda
5: Cameroon
Who doesn't want to live there?
Now consider these non-diverse wastelands:
63: Switzerland (they score higher on diversity because of their large minorities of Italians and French, which still counts in Europe).
85: US
117: France
146: Norway
148: Germany
Another economic illiterate gives voice to the utopian dreams of the lefties.
Reading her piece wrinkled my nose watching her wrinkle hers.
- Krumhorn
Have you ever noticed that when progressives point out countries far superior to the United States (Switzerland, Scandinavia), they always refer to countries with a whole lot of white people?
Same reason why progressives like Portland (whitest big city in the United States) and Seattle so much.
Progressives love to talk about diversity, so long as they don't have to actually experience it.
My family left Switzerland for the US in the 19th century. The reason they gave in their petition to leave was that they could no longer afford the taxes on their farm land. Even then.
Cuckoo clocks, cheese and numbered accounts.
You could work in the Swiss patent office, like Einstein.
Enstein was noted for work-home balance, the photoelectric effect and special relativity.
She looks like she might be a decent lay so I'm willing to cut her some slack.
I agree with many comments above.
Switzerland is quite homogenous and has retained much of its culture. There is still some stigma associated with being a layabout. That helps them control their taxation levels.
History and geography have given Switzerland an efficient and convenient electric rail system. Much of the population lies compactly along the mountain valleys, where train tracks predated the invention of the automobile.
The Swiss cost of living is punitive. For example, due to regulation of egg production a single chicken's egg costs over a dollar. Gas is about $5.70 per gallon. Restaurant food is painfully expensive.
Government in the Cantons of Switzerland is much more locally oriented, which reigns in some of the excesses we see in American federal government. Individuals still have a voice in Swiss government.
In net, the author is not very perceptive or knowledgeable.
The lady is blazingly ignorant about the Swiss tax system among other things.
1.The 35% dividend tax is a withholding not the rate of tax. The rate of tax depends on the Swiss recipient's overall income, and that rate is low compared to the USA and most other developed countries. The amount withheld in excess of the actual tax is refundable. (The withholding is mainly to tax foreign holders of Swiss companies, and that rate is reduced by treaty in many cases.)
2. While Switzerland has a wealth tax, there is no inheritance tax at the federal or canton level. The low rate of the wealth tax, coupled with considerable exemptions, together with the low taxes on dividends and other income, means that this wealth tax is very manageable. I'm pretty sure most wealthy Americans would trade the Swiss approach for the American in a heartbeat. (No inheritance tax, remember? It is actually Swiss policy to preserve their concentrations of wealth.)
3. The Swiss rake in a big percentage of their government income from VAT, an utterly regressive tax.
All this is wholly apart from the geographic, cultural, ethnic and other differences between USA and Switzerland.
Nothing like ignorance to make the world look easy.
A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman, ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty’. Milton Friedman replied, ‘That’s interesting, because in America, among Scandinavians, we have no poverty, either’ (the poverty rate for Americans with Swedish ancestry was half the US average). Maybe the reason those Americans who work (a declining percentage) work so hard is because we have to in order to support all of the non-Scandinavians.
Switzerland is expensive, but their income taxes are lower than ours. That makes up for a lot. VAT is part of that expense for goods and services..
I wonder if she was filing US tax returns while she lived in Switzerland? She was supposed to. Bet she didn't. Or if she did bet she didn't declare all of her income.
I too encourage her to go back. She is never going to like it here.
Switzerland IS an exceptional country AND the wealthiest. She has experienced the benefits of that.
When progressives talk about the "1%" they speak only of cities, states or countries, not of regions. Switzerland IS the "1%" of Europe. And they ARE NOT a member of the EU. So they don't have to deal with those spendthrift Greeks, Italians etc.
I reread the article. The lady did file US returns and pay US taxes while she was there. Apologies.
Also, how does a 28 year old work full time 7 days a week and make $30,000? I call BS on that one. Maybe interns at VOX make that, but not educated college grads who try and get a job in the real world. You don't get to pick a low paying lifestyle job (presumably because your executive partner is supporting you) and then whine about how low paying it was.
Some people believe that the only difference between the US and other countries is the laws that are passed. If Mexico had Canada's laws, Mexico would be like Canada . . .
I've stayed at the Hotel zum Storchen shown in her picture. It's in the old part of Zurich. It was nice and very expensive.
She is in the U.S. Because her selfish husband got a better offer here in the stinking US. She should take this up with him.
"Gas is about $5.70 per gallon"
Wow! It's only $4.50 a gallon in California.
"Wow! It's only $4.50 a gallon in California."
$2.50/gallon in Madison.
European countries, in general, require you to perform and do things a very specific way. If you enjoy the culture of that country, you will find everything overwhelmingly great. If not, you will be miserable. As others have noted, there's a homogenous nature that exists.
The US, on the other hand, is non-homogeounous. The great thing is that you can find your desires and lifestyle in the US. Unfortunately, there's a narrow mindset that wants to spread their homogeneity to the rest of the US. If you want the beach bum lifestyle, you can find it. But the commonality in the US is that there's a lot more competition for whatever lifestyle you want.
Isn't Vox supposed to be for smart people? I went to the Vox site and read the headlines. I think my IQ dropped by ten points.
"$2.50/gallon in Madison."
See, you could move to California and be smarter, or something. You don't have to go all the way to Switzerland.
Original Mike said...
$2.50/gallon in Madison.
I blame Obama.
"I blame Obama."
Even you I can't believe the oil boom in this country is Obama's doing. Hell, it's a personal failure for him.
Switzerland, like all European countries, plus Japan and others, free rides on the US for its defense. They spend .7% of their GDP on the military. That allows all these countries to put an additional amount up to 3% of their GDP into social welfare programs every year, at our expense.
Einstein once said that the most powerful force in the universe was - compound interest. Take the amount these countries have saved every year on defense since 1945 and compound it to the present and you'll get hundreds of trillions of dollars they've had to slowly raise the temperature in their pot of socialism. Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland are already bankrupt and the others are not far behind.
They're all running out of OPM, as Thatcher predicted.
And their native populations are dying. Their birth rates are all far below replacement rates, which is why they have to import millions of Muslims, who by comparison, breed like rabbits and know how to game the welfare state. The Islamification of Europe continues to accelerate, and I doubt the Euros have the spine to stop it (much like the Us with its illegals).
Switzerland may look like paradise now, but wait a generation, or two at most. The whole First World is careening towards its own suicide. Progressivism is great, ain't it?
It never crosses her mind that she should feel any guilt for living her life off of someone else's work. She is healthy, educated and young. Why, exactly should she get subsidies paid for by other people? She should refuse these things and stand on her own two feet. That's the American way!
We have before a nation of moochers, just as predicted by Ayn Rand, whom our bloggess has never read.
Also, why did she have to come back? More career opportunities? More economic dynamism?
Progressives love to talk about diversity, so long as they don't have to actually experience it.
I was at a county fair this weekend and noticed one kid who looked kind of Mexican, he was riding a mechanical bull, ok, there was his brother too. Other than them, I saw nobody who was not European looking white.
I have worked in France and the people I worked with worked pretty hard, in IT. They started late, but they worked late. They seemed to have much admiration for Americans too. Though it was a pretty small sample of people I knew well, and the fact that we were all working for an American company may have had something to do with it.
AReasonableMan said...
Original Mike said...
$2.50/gallon in Madison.
I blame Obama.
No. Dispite Obama.
Cheers
AReasonableMan said...
Your vaunted China is having an economoic meltdown, ARM. All those foolish American dollars are coming home. Brought back by Chinese who want value for their dollar.
Left out of the article was: Which of the two is a Swiss citizen? As an American, one does not simply waltz into Switzerland & say "Hey, I'm here. Give me a job." You either have to be a citizen or be involved with some multi-national organization like the UN in Zurich. The first is an accident of birth. The second means that either she or her husband is well-connected.
Swiss citizenship is very difficult to obtain, and the folks who have it & live abroad, do whatever they need to do to maintain it. Something is going on in the background in that article, & the authoress is being coy about exactly what it is. My guess: either she or her husband or both come from wealthy families.
There's progress among progressives. There used to be gushy articles about the Soviet Union and even Mao's China. Now they look to Switzerland as the fulfillment of the good life for a working man. Even the most conservative here must admit that this indicates progress among the progressives.
I've been to Switzerland many times. It's a wonderful place in many ways, but most of them center around its geography and natural beauty, sitting in the Alps as it does. Some of the least attractive things about Switzerland center around its culture. For one thing, for the most part they don't like Americans there, sometimes almost to the point of hostility. I'm sure she felt quite at home.
Dunno Coupe, just saw a pro Obama meme from facebook peeps talking about how great the economy is and that they are proud they voted for Obama.
So much so that we can now turn our attention more fully to our greatest security risk: CAGW.
One of the interesting cultural factoids about Switzerland is gun ownership is de rigueur, with just about every home having one. And that's owing largely to governmental policy, what with mandatory military conscription for all males up to age 40, and laws requiring them to keep their weapons at home. Not coincidentally, Swiss crime rates are very low, with most crime being commited by immigrants from the third world. I wonder how much progressives want to toot their horns about how great Switzerland is when it comes to all that.
"A full-time freelance position with a long commute"
She mentions commute twice regarding her US interview..lumps it in with the job requirements. I guess she thinks the employer should be concerned about where she lives?
It's worth noting that Swiss government costs $5,500 (purchasing power parity) less per citizen per year than American government. If you consider that difference per worker the difference is probably huge ($12,000?), so yeah, life for Swiss workers is going to be a lot better.
Source: [download raw data on top right] http://www.heritage.org/index/download
Zeb Quinn @ 12:04,
Yep, beautiful country, but it's the only place I've visited where the people look at you and treat you like their money is in your pocket.
Switzerland is the Mitt Romney of nations.
So why are all those migrants/refugees trying to break into Great Britain instead of the paradise that is Switzerland? Also, if the US only consisted of eight million white people (as is the case in yodel land), we'd be pretty frickin' fantastic too.
""A full-time freelance position with a long commute"
She mentions commute twice regarding her US interview..lumps it in with the job requirements. I guess she thinks the employer should be concerned about where she lives?"
She probably moved to the suburbs of Chicago (she has a kid who will be starting school soon), so she has to drive a lot. For some reason, she doesn't want to turn her kid over to the Chicago Public Schools, which as we all know is controlled by Republicans.
Switzerland doesn't have inner-city schools like Chicago's, apparently.
People also forget (tho some have alluded to it here) the small geographical size of Europe and the fact that its cities and train systems were est prior to the invention of the automobile which makes mass transit so workable. The Head of Austria's Forrest Ministry once said in a radio interview in New Orleans circa 1975 in regard to the disparities in the distances involved: "Do you realize that the entire nation of Austria--all its mountains, lakes, rivers, streams and cities--could fit inside your Grand Canyon?"
Shorter Chantal Panozzo:
Life in America would be so much better if only we lived a society without any black people or Hispanics, and with guns under nearly every grown man's bed.
@virgil, yes, and you could drop Switzerland into the Colorado high country and no one would find it for decades unless you accidentally dropped it into prime skiing country.
Switzerland is an interesting place. I've had colleagues who've lived there and loved it, but have also have colleagues who are Swiss ex-pats and loathe the place. The latter's arguments are pretty persuasive. Among other things, if you live in Switzerland, you have to live according to their rules. This isn't merely a suggestion.
For me, it's the winters that strikes it off my list of desirable places to live. (The high cost of living doesn't help either.)
They are trying to break into Britain because the British treat them better than the French, Swiss or Germans, in that they will let them work and give them benefits. Or at least it's easier to work under the table.
If they had a way to get to the US border they would be piling up there instead, as the US is an even more attractive destination.
The US is very lucky in its geography. It is accessible only to a better sort of illegal immigrant. The people from south of the border are on the whole hard working and culturally compatible, and those that have to fly in are filtered by intelligence, education, and ambition.
Isn't Vox supposed to be for smart people?
They are an adult My Weekly Reader.
Of course, that may seem "smart" for their target audience.
The writer is conflating her lifestyle choices, which make it hard for her in America, with the entire "work culture".
1. An employer can't offer you a "commute", unless they are committing to moving your office a set driving distance away from where you live, which I have never heard of. Her commute is a function of where she chooses to live as much as where you choose to work.
2. If the line of work your experience and education fits you for is ill-paid with a lot of hours and little prospect of that changing, then why don't you change what you do? I had that problem and I changed careers, which is easier to do in America than in Europe.
3. As others have pointed out, as a foreigner in Switzerland she appears to have been unusually privileged.
4. I have a lot of admiration for the Swiss and Switzerland, but that's their country, set up for them in the ways that they believe benefit themselves, and they are geopolitically unique. They discourage immigration and maintain their neutrality for that reason. The people who think we should be like Switzerland generally are in favor of policies that would ruin Switzerland in short order.
Wasn't there a big story years ago about dope addicts in Zurich hanging around a city park and getting free needles and other goodies from the govt? What happened with that?
It seems like heroin addicts tend to come from fairly affluent backgrounds.
"One of the major differences about Switzerland and the United States, is they never conquered an enemy before. Switzerland doesn't have a culture of invading countries and conquering them, or threatening other with WMD." Just wow. The United States in WWII was a culture of threatening and conquering. In the Korean War, defending South Korea. Spending our blood and treasure defending places in Europe like Switzerland from the Soviet Union. I suppose you think that we fought in Vietnam because we were anxious to get rich from their rice paddies? While Switzerland got along okay with the Nazis while Europe burned, just so they'd be left alone.
Just a completely different mindset, indeed.
"The people who think we should be like Switzerland generally are in favor of policies that would ruin Switzerland in short order."
Nice point. Won't slow them down though.
Arumentum ad populum. If Switzerland jumped off a bridge this chick would follow.
...and with guns under nearly every grown man's bed.
...and not just "guns", but honest-to-goodness government-issue assault rifles, not the "assault rifles" of US liberals' and media's fevered imaginations.
The article illustrates the number one argument against the Value Added Tax(VAT) The author managed to live with it and have no clue that she was paying it. Bump it up another percent or two, and there will be no objection from the ill-informed.
$7.54 for a Big Mac? Only in Switzerland.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/22/news/big-mac-index/
Fun Swiss Policies and Characteristics:
Restrict immigration (though somewhat more relaxed but must have a job before immigrating)
Restrict naturalized citizenship severely
Overwhelmingly white
Military draft
Every household has at least one gun.
No inheritance tax. Government policy favors preservation of private wealth through generations.
Tax haven.
Abortion restricted to first trimester except in case of severe threat to life of mother.
Low income taxes.
Persons from other than EU countries must have a guaranteed job before they are allowed to move to the country.
Immigrants who need social welfare are sent home.
Detention camps for illegal immigrants. Can be imprisoned for up to 18 months. 88% of illegals are deported.
"$7.54 for a Big Mac? Only in Switzerland."
Well..maybe here too if min wage goes to $15/hr...assuming automation doesn't take over.
"The US is very lucky in its geography. It is accessible only to a better sort of illegal immigrant."
Yeah..seeing some real gems in the news lately, eh?
But yes..those in favor of genuine control over immigration should work the discrimination angle of "border privilege".
i.e. "Where's the social justice?"
I recently read, "The Land of Milk and Money" about Switzerland and Swiss culture. It was written by a Gay Briton who moved to Switzerland with his partner. I assume the partner was Swiss. In any event the author has now lived in Switzerland for ten years and offers a pretty good take on Swiss culture, manners and mores. It's worth reading.
I was an American Field Service exchange student in Switzerland, living there in the Fall and early winter of 1960-61. I lived with a German speaking family and went to the local high school.
Switzerland has some advantages that the US does not. It's a relatively small country, with the bulk of the population living in a dense corridor from Geneva to Zurich. That makes it easy for public transportation and very good rail and bus network. Despite the four languages spoken, it's also a fairly homogenous culture.
At the time the civil rights movement in the USA was just beginning to rise to full force, and I heard from my Swiss classmates about the awful segregation and racial prejudice in the USA. (This was three years after Central High in Little Rock). Well okay, they had a point. At the same time I could walk down the street in Bern and see a good upstanding Swiss citizen spit in the street at the approach or sight of a Southern European. Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards came to Switzerland to work as street cleaners and garbagemen--well they worked there, but they were held in almost universal contempt. White folks only in Switzerland thank you--and only the "right" kind of white folks--nothing from south of the Pyrenees allowed.
Well time has moved on--and I see that the Swiss world cup team had some ethnic Turks and Bulgarians on it last year. I don't know how well they're doing in the social order, but at least they could make the national football team.
Sure, the author has blinders on. There are good reasons why some things work in Switzerland that won't work in the U.S. However, the point of this and many similar articles--that life in the U.S. Is harder than it needs to be--is spot on. Europe pays high taxes for great services, Americans pay high taxes for crap services.
One big reason is that the rest of the world free-rides off the U.S., but another big reason is that we tolerate vast amounts of waste, fraud and abuse from our "public servants." Ms. Panozzo and her ilk could be of great service to Americans with the same desires she has by not turning a blind eye to the criminal conspiracy that is the Democratic Party. (Republicans are doing their best, with disappointing results so far, to curb the same behavior by the equally reprehensible Republican Party.)
@walter
I just saw a thing on the internet showing "historic photos that changed the world". Photos such as the monk who self-immolated himself in protest of the treatment of Buddhists in Vietnam, Jessie Owens saluting during his gold medal ceremony in Berlin 1936. I only got a few photos in before I came across a picture of Obama on his high school basketball team.
Closed the article after that.
Does the author do anything worth paying for?
The United States ... was ... [s]pending our blood defending places in Europe like Switzerland from the Soviet Union
Not true as far as Switzerland goes. The main reason Switzerland has been able to and remains supposedly aloof and neutral in world affairs over many centuries is because their geographic situation renders them basically impregnable. Even though Hitler had Switzerland completely surrounded by his Axis powers, and he really wanted to take them, obsessed by it in fact, he wasn't he able to do it. Surely the Soviets wouldn't have been able to either, certainly not without the use of at least 500,000 soldiers on the ground, or they could have nuked them repeatedly, but, in either case, why? For what?
The full Economist Big Mac Index is here.
The shocking thing in this year's index is how high the USA ranks compared to previous years. The USD is very overvalued. It might be worth buying some ETFs in Singapore or Australian dollars for your retirement portfolio.
(Actually the Thai Baht looks REALLY good but there's no convenient way an American can invest in the currency.)
I lived in Switzerland for a couple of years. It is quite beautiful country. People can be friendly but only at an arms distance. As someone mentioned above, Switzerland is more diverse than you think and in a different way. Their diversity comes from eastern Europe, Brazil and Turkey. I've tried to work on speaking German there but they are only too happy to speak English with you when they pick up on your struggles with German. The reason for this is that when people learn German, it's high German not Swiss German. The Swiss don't care to speak high German unless it's a formal occasion or in school. They'd much rather speak English as it's more fun for them. The income taxes are low but they do a have a VAT which makes things like restaurant meals more expensive. They tend to live more frugally as a result of the VAT.
One could keep it domestic and pen the article, "Living in a Rich Enclave Ruined Me for Living in a Regular Town," or "Living in a Country Club Ruined Me for Living in a Regular Neighborhood."
But then, of course, no one would care.
Zeb, Hitler didn't invade Switzerland because they were his bankers. They were of more value to him as non-combatants. Your post suggests he invaded but was repulsed. That's crazy.
Scott said...
The USD is very overvalued. It might be worth buying some ETFs in Singapore or Australian dollars for your retirement portfolio.
Ixnay on the A$, they have a massive property bubble and if the Chinese economy keeps slowing it has to burst.
Many years ago I was at a technical meeting in the US and there was a dinner cruise. One of the attendees was a person originally from Germany who during the course of dinner conversation started ripping the US for various foibles. Most of the folks at the table were American but no one said anything to contradict him. Finally I had enough and asked him if things were so great in Europe why didn't he go back. He got really pissed by the expression on his face but couldn't answer me. Because he was full of shit. Now if I hear those kind of comments from Euro trash, which is not that common, I immediately come back at them. They usually slink away or shut up.
@sane_voter,
You only heard that anti-American crap from some clown at a dinner party. Try having a French mother & hearing it from her or relatives all the goddamn time! I've spoken to children of other Western European immigrants and they tell me the same story. Not so for immigrants from Eastern Europe who got out post-war or during the Cold War. They are almost to a man, so grateful that the US took them in & that they got to raise their children here & that they all expect to die in their beds of old age rather than in a gulag. It's really touching.
Now, when some European starts in on "Amerika", I go in for the kill. It's easier if they're French because then I know the pain points all the better, but no matter what, I go for it. Once at a dinner party, I had some rabid Belgian lefty screaming at me because I wasn't giving in. His last words were "America is no better than North Korea!" & then the hostess shut us down.
This has nothing to do with my conservatism. Hell, I did the same thing when I was an anarchist -- you weren't going to get a pass on slashing my country for free. It's much more Oedipal than political with me.
@Zeb Quinn:The main reason Switzerland has been able to and remains supposedly aloof and neutral in world affairs over many centuries is because their geographic situation renders them basically impregnable.
Then how were they conquered by Austria, and the Franks, and the Roman Empire before them? In the Middle Ages mountains meant a lot more than they do now.
Even though Hitler had Switzerland completely surrounded by his Axis powers, and he really wanted to take them, obsessed by it in fact, he wasn't he able to do it.
This is entirely false, except for having Switzerland surrounded. Switzerland was no threat to him, and he had no particular desire to conquer it. If he had, it would have been over in a few days; the Swiss plan was to hole up in the mountains and abandon the valleys.
Switzerland was simply not worth conquering. It had no strategic resources and would have tied up any number of divisions; leaving Switzerland alone had no consequences since Switzerland had (and has now) no ability to fight beyond its borders.
@Gabriel, to which we can add that during World War II the Swiss air component of their armed forces flew Messerschmitts and would attack damaged US bombers attempting to land in Switzerland. Good thing for them that after V-E day the US still had the Japanese to fight or we might have tested the atomic bomb on Bern.
@Big Mike:we can add that during World War II the Swiss air component of their armed forces flew Messerschmitts and would attack damaged US bombers attempting to land in Switzerland.
In their defense, we should note that these were largely token efforts and that allowing Allies to land unopposed would be a violation of neutrality--not that Hitler needed an excuse, he'd shown that any number of times. Hitler was very close, and America was very far away. There was no way to know what he might have done to Switzerland, for nothing other than spite (see also the invasion of the Balkans, which cost Hitler the war in the East before he'd even started it), if sufficiently provoked.
As far as I'm concerned they were hostages. Their neutrality was more moral than Sweden's and far more so than Vichy France's.
Gee, working conditions are better in a place where 80% of adults work? Whodda thunkit?
Last time checked, the USA was still technically the richest country there has ever been, we are just doing a really shit job of organizing our system.
Fox Butterfield, is that you?
"Ixnay on the A$, they have a massive property bubble and if the Chinese economy keeps slowing it has to burst."
The property bubble is only in Sydney.
I travel to Australia once a year. The cheap AUD lets me stay in luxury hotels on Sydney harbor. Love it.
sane_voter
One of the attendees was a person originally from Germany who during the course of dinner conversation started ripping the US for various foibles.... Finally I had enough and asked him if things were so great in Europe why didn't he go back.
My brother-in-law came over from Germany as a child. When he was stationed in Germany with the US Army, he married his first wife, a German. She was not a happy camper living in the US- in nearly all categories the US looked bad compared to Germany, she said- and said and said. After several decades of marriage, they divorced, and she moved back to Germany.
Several years later, she moved back to the US. After re-experiencing Germany, the US wasn't that bad after all.
My friend owns a factory in Switzerland. He's Swiss. Most of his workers are Italian and commute across the border each day. Italians will work for less than Swiss do. His factory is fairly profitable and makes really high quality goods.
The Swiss don't give a fuck what you think.
This "writer" called herself "they".
Terry said...
Isn't Vox supposed to be for smart people? I went to the Vox site and read the headlines. I think my IQ dropped by ten points.
That was Slate. If it were Vox, it would have dropped by 20.
My aunt lives in Zurich (Hallo Tante Rita!) I visit from time to time.
The author of the Vox piece has not a fucking clue. The Swiss take secrecy and confidentiality to a place that would astound and horrify a KGB or Mossad spymaster. Whatever the Vox Duncessina thinks is the opposite of the truth, or perhaps at some acute angle to the truth.
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