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Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

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Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#32
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's okay, you can sub most any country in Europe in, and still end up with a much more sane work culture than the US.

Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are. I don't think it's an accident that America i…

> Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are.

You have confused your carefully selected sample (assorted by profession, employee preferences, and employer preferences) for the general population.

That is a mistake.

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#33
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. Is it? Russia is the largest country on the planet and they have had mass transit figured out for nearly a century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Russia

Have you been there? I really don’t think Russia has it figured out better than the US. Russia’s infrastructure is certainly not close to the level of Europe/Japan or China.

> Have you been there? I really don’t think Russia has it figured out better than the US.

Yes, I live here. Russian transportation absolutely blows anything in the US away, and I've traveled extensively in both countries. Transportation is embarrassing and frustrating for me when I come back to the US. The US is absolutely car-dependent.

Russia has everything from Rail transport (trans-Siberian, etc), city subways (Moscow subway just built a bunch of new lines including a second ring), trams, electric buses, bus systems, marshrutka mini buses, very cheap taxis (uber & yandex).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Mo...

> Russia’s infrastructure is certainly not close to the level of Europe/Japan or China.

Fair enough, but their low tech solutions are cost effective and solve the problem.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2018/07/20/moscow-public-tran...

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#35
post #18
post #8

Transportation is the biggest difference between the us and a lot of the rest of the world. Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. That said I’ve noticed that a lot of the jobs in the us that would be considered “glamorous” are by and large the lowest paying jobs with the longest hours. Looking past the status of a company and career and looking into the practica…

> Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. If tomorrow all of Europe and Asia was unified into one giant continent-spanning country, would building mass transit there suddenly become more difficult?

Yes because the number of stake holders that need to be satisfied and the number of edge cases would increase massively.

Look at public transit systems throughout the west whenever they get expanded it's a long painful process because of all the new stakeholders being added and the new edge cases that get brought to light.

Edit: Down-voted because inconvenient opinion or down-voted because wrong?

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#36
post #12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are. I don't think it's an accident that America i…

> I don't think it's an accident that America is the most rich and powerful country in the world. Or that American Tech dominant the world (except for China) You were the winners of a World War that left your competitors in scorched ruins, while you hadn't suffered much physical damage. In the multi-stranded bundle of reasons for American dominance, this is the big one.

America supported Hitler until 1941.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworl...

Wall Street also supported hitler until 1941. Hitler wanted to invade America mostly so that he would have to repay wall street.

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#37
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's okay, you can sub most any country in Europe in, and still end up with a much more sane work culture than the US.

Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are. I don't think it's an accident that America i…

You do you, but be sure that once you do kill yourself, your company will have you replaced within a week. That kind of loyalty only goes one way.

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#38
post #9

Is Switzerland producing anything like SpaceX? Or Google? Or Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tesla, Stripe, Y Combinator? More importantly, would we have produced these with their system? If so, then great, but let's see the evidence. No problem to have a work culture preference, and things could definitely be improved(!!), but I think we're kidding ourselves that there are no tradeoffs and everything would simply be better.…

Nestle, Novartis and Roche can easily compare to the companies you mentioned. Especially since they deal with healthcare and food supply which might be even more important than PR heavy billionare projects of throwing cars in the orbit.

I'm also pretty sure that average american has a lot to gain from existence of Apple when they can't pay off their college loans and medical bills. Or go on a proper vacation.

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#39
post #8

Transportation is the biggest difference between the us and a lot of the rest of the world. Switzerland is the size of a small New England state. Mass transit is a tough thing to scale. That said I’ve noticed that a lot of the jobs in the us that would be considered “glamorous” are by and large the lowest paying jobs with the longest hours. Looking past the status of a company and career and looking into the practica…

I’m not sure transportation is as important as, say, healthcare or work/life balance.

It's a vital part of it.

It's much healthier to walk bike or ride transit to work and daily activities. Additionally, being closer to everything means less stress and more free time (better work/life balance).

Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture (2016)

#40
post #23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people (including myself), don't want a laid back work culture. I want to kill myself for the firm, and work as hard as humanly possible. I think I just derive the most happiness from working (though I do like drinking as well). I know a lot of other people like this. Maybe you can call us brainwashed or whatever, but this is how myself and most of my co-workers are. I don't think it's an accident that America i…

Just so you know usa is ranked 10 in GDP. I don't think being the richest means much, but USA is not the richest https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PP...

All the countries in those lists with higher per capita GDPs are a) oil exporting sheikdoms, b) tiny little financial havens, or c) tiny city states.

None are continent spanning superpowers.

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