Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 462 posts

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

#101

Post by staz »

blfr wrote: post #41

"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 al…

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

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

#103

Post by maus42 »

rsync wrote: post #13

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…

Yeah, urm, no. Okay, the "deal" part isn't that far off.

The landed gentry lost much of its status and importance during 19th and 20th centuries, or joined (if they invested wisely) the class what the left likes to call "capitalists". This was caused by what is called "industrialization". Old aristocracy managed to continue to exist in some form in some countries (the UK is great example of that) and the class divisions didn't disappear, but turned into something slightly different.

And the implied threat socialist / communist revolution was part of the deal, but it isn't that simple. Far more important was parliamentary democracy. Of the much praised Nordic countries (the ones Bernie Sanders seeks inspiration from), only in Finland the left actually tried a violent revolution. It failed, and they were mostly kicked out and kept out of politics until after WWII. Compared to Sweden, where the factory owners and unions started to negotiate decades earlier, the deals after that were always worse.

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

#104

Post by cjsthompson »

rhino369 wrote: post #71
cjsthompson wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France and Germany have a higher standard of living than the U.S. In fact except Greece, Italy and Spain all European countries have a higher standard of living than the U.S.. Face it you are the third world compared to Europe. Ooooh, those poor little jingoistic feewings are butthurt... :D

No they don't. They have higher standards for the lower classes. America has a higher standard of living but is far more sink or swim.

I know that. So what you mean to say by "no", is that one should be "proud of their country" when the system benefits a minority of the rich and the lower classes live in trailer parks or are homeless who get food stamps? U.S. logic I guess. You're much better off literally anywhere in central/northern europe than in the U.S. which is what is meant by the standard of living is higher. And how about the lower standard of education? The millions of morons who believe in god and creationism? There's so many ways in which the U.S. is a retarded place.

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

#105

Post by digi_owl »

hans0l074 wrote: post #94
blfr wrote: post #41

"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 al…

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…

Sadly there are concerted political effort being focused on going American in the Nordics, as the current system is considered "inefficient". Even the supposed left is in on the game, pulling a double talk akin to UK's Labor...

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

#106

Post by Frozenlock »

jkot wrote: post #27

I think article skips anything negative. 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 compan…

I never understood the ripoff that the "lunch hour" was.

So... you are going to keep me away from other stuff, but I'm not paid for it?

Also, you might not be hungry. If you live on a low carb high fat diet, you can easily go 12 hours or more without feeling the need to eat something.

And some companies will even go to the length of banning sites like youtube. "Try to kill an hour... but we'll remove anything that could distract you... Have fun twiddling your thumbs!"

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

#107

Post by low_battery »

cjsthompson wrote: post #72
flarg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent 25-50% of my time working in Switzerland - rest of the time in the UK. There is literally no downside of Switzerland - it is a truly magical place. A commenter mentioned too much democracy, and it's true that it's one of the most democratic places on the planet - so the harsh side of people come out - but it's fair. Also the languages - there's 3 or 4 official languages, and the German is a special dialect, b…

No, actually it's the only place that's somewhat democratic.

Make an image search for "swiss political billboards"

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

#109

Post by sampo »

Frozenlock wrote: post #106
jkot wrote: post #27

I think article skips anything negative. 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 compan…

I never understood the ripoff that the "lunch hour" was. So... you are going to keep me away from other stuff, but I'm not paid for it? Also, you might not be hungry. If you live on a low carb high fat diet, you can easily go 12 hours or more without feeling the need to eat something. And some companies will even go to the length of banning sites like youtube. "Try to kill an hour... but we'll remove anything that co…

I guess lunch hour is much nicer if your home is under 10 minutes from work. If your commute is longer than 30 minutes, going home for lunch hour makes no sense.
Post reply on HN