
Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture - lleims
http://www.vox.com/2015/7/21/8974435/switzerland-work-life-balance
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hwstar
If more people knew they could live a better life outside of the USA and the
immigration policies were more open outside of America, the USA would
experience mass emigration.

The corporate-controlled media avoids comparing or discussing US employment
laws to other developed countries specifically for this reason. The puritan
work ethic is partially to blame as well.

People in Europe know how to live their lives in balance between play and
work. Americans were never conditioned to live this way in public schools or
by their parents.

In America, all that matters is profit and the almighty dollar, and be damned
with making the country a better place to live and work.

~~~
stuxnet79
> People in Europe know how to live their lives in balance between play and
> work. Americans were never conditioned to live this way in public schools or
> by their parents.

Do you have some personal experience with this? I keep hearing this and I'm
very curious as to why it is the case. I'm in grad school and even I have
noticed that my European colleagues tend to be more laid back.

~~~
hwstar
I have seen for myself how people in the UK live compared to the US as I have
family in the UK and have been back to visit quite a bit.

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allendoerfer
All those averages say very little about the situation. The country has a very
stable middle class, salted with high-skilled and/or high net-worth German
immigrants, while the US has super rich people, very poor people and
everything in between. So the average does say very little about a college
educated white-collar worker.

Switzerland is also a tiny country that would be a tiny state in the US but is
still segmented in kantons that each have their own tax system and negotiate
individual tax deals with super rich immigrants.

I am not an expert on the Swiss tax system, but based upon my anecdotal
knowledge about these individual tax-deals I doubt that these numbers are
universal. They each apply only to a small number of people, remember
Switzerland is tiny and you compare a subset of it with all of the US.

To make this comment a bit less negative: Everything else aside from the
numbers and about the cultural differences in working environments is quite
interesting. I enjoy to read outside views about your own culture or even
other cultures.

~~~
olewhalehunter
Switzerland has also been a parasite on European finance since the renaissance
and especially since the Treaty of Paris in 1815, every outcome of Germanic
squabbles ending in unpaid damages and debts to other European peoples from
the Hussite war to World War II has ended in Germanic warlords fleeing to
Switzerland with their wealth, laundering their finances into the black hole
of the Swiss economy and banking system, then conveniently shrugging
"Switzerland is neutral ground, sorry" to avoid any responsibility in European
politics.

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nikdaheratik
Let's not limit this to Switzerland or even Europe. Many of these same work
laws, health care benefits, and actual working public transport, exist in
Australia. And I would assume many other countries that decided that
Socialism, and some regulation of business, does not lead to a some kind of
Communist revolt.

Health Insurance companies, Auto companies, and other big business industries
managed to squeeze concessions out of the U.S. that would cause huge protests
if they tried to pass them in many other countries around the world. And
Americans are so inward looking that they don't even notice the differences.

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ilaksh
American work culture is lousy, but I'm not sure we can all copy Switzerland.
There are only so many favorite countries for criminals to hide their money.
Switzerland is rich.

~~~
michaelochurch
We (the U.S.) _are_ the favorite country for criminals hiding their wealth,
and it's not even close. The problem is that they buy real estate in the most
expensive areas (New York, Bay Area) and that hurts far more people than it
helps.

Sure, there are the Swiss bank accounts, but every corrupt official in China
has a house in Silicon Valley in case he gets caught.

~~~
yuhong
Canada too.

