Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by roflmyeggo » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:04 PM UTC

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…

I almost can't even believe that commercial is real.

I would love to see how it affected Cadillac's sales.

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

#212

Post by rasur » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:04 PM UTC

zantana wrote: post #188

asdfologist wrote: post #4

Can someone here elucidate the downsides to living in Switzerland, over the US, particularly for those in the HN crowd?

Harry Lime: Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.

Cuckoo clock is southern germany, not switzerland. Common misconception.

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

#213

Post by low_battery » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:05 PM UTC

cjsthompson wrote: post #192

low_battery wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing contradicting with your statement, Just gave some example of bullshit their cute democracy produces.

You completely misunderstood my statement because you have no idea what democracy is.

No I know exactly what democracy is, and told you that I did not contradict your statement. Also, obviously, you never lived in Switzerland. Chill.

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

#214

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:07 PM UTC

yxhuvud wrote: post #141

rhizome31 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peasantry was different from slavery. The middle age has actually seen slavery disappearing from Europe, which is incidentally why slaves had to be taken from somewhere else to bring to the "new world". Class struggle that led to welfare and benefits wasn't against the gentry but against the bourgeoisie (factory owners). The same bourgeoisie who had chopped the gentry's heads before.

Peasantry wasn't slavery, but they were serfs, and in the end serfdom didn't end up being very different to slavery.

[deleted]

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

#215

Post by adventured » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:07 PM UTC

dubcanada wrote: post #202

adventured wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact America does have one of the highest standards of living. It also has one of the highest median incomes, and among the highest disposable incomes. OECD better life index: http://i.imgur.com/ekhWXeG.png Maternity leave is common in America. You are free to choose your job based on the benefits you desire, including vacation time and maternity leave. Switzerland and Germany to name two, are famous for not havin…

Maternity leave in America is basically unpaid vacation. In most countries you get paid maternity leave. Vacation time is also the lowest (2 weeks) compared to Europe which on average has 4 weeks of vacation time. Where did you get your information about healthcare from? Very affordable healthcare in America? Seriously, what are you smoking?

Yes, in fact healthcare in America used to be affordable.

The two big price jumps were in 1990-2000, and then 2000-now. The last one is what finally broke the private system in the US in terms of affordability.

It's easy to look up the facts and demonstrate where the costs began to soar:

http://i.imgur.com/OXg7Nx7.png

http://i.imgur.com/R6MbaD9.png

Healthcare costs per capita have gone up four fold since 1990 roughly. Real household income in the US was about $47,000 in 1990. Today it's around $58,000 or so. That means people in 1990, with just around 20% less income, were spending 75% less on healthcare. Yes, it was affordable back then.

You can easily prove this another way: look up medical caused bankruptcies, and look at how they surge from the 1990s forward.

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

#216

Post by rhino369 » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:08 PM UTC

Mikeb85 wrote: post #200

rhino369 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By lower class I don't mean everyone not rich. I mean everyone not middle class or better. Median household income PPP adjusted in America is 30-40% better than France and Germany.

But household income adjusted to PPP isn't the only quality of life indicator. For the 'median' family in the US, they can expect to pay far more for health care and transportation. US PPP income is highly skewed because the US dollar is very strong, and a basket of consumer goods in the US is very cheap. Healthcare and education on the other hand are astronomical, and certain items seen elsewhere as 'luxuries' can b…

Income PPP adjusted also doesn't factor in taxes. Things like free tuition are paid for by much higher rates. Healthcare is usually part of compensation packages in America. I'm not sure if that gets included in gross income.

My main problem with quality of life indexes is they tend to overvalue income equality. It's true that income inequality is generally associated with poor countries but the USA is clearly an outlier. Favoring equality is a normative judgement.

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

#217

Post by rhino369 » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:09 PM UTC

digi_owl wrote: post #128

rhino369 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the freed slaves were a disenfranchised minority and only shaped culture a little bit. When slaves were still in bondage, the European immigrants could go west for free and cheap land. The cheap land and lack of landed gentry created a culture that values entrepreneurship. Even today America LOVES rags to riches stories. You can also see that the black community today is considerably more liberal than the general…

Ah yes, the American (pipe) dream...

Whether it's true now or not we still beleive in it.

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

#218

Post by curiousjorge » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:09 PM UTC

Reminds me of a local recruiter from a while back who wouldn't stop calling, emailing and then resorted to sending messages on twitter (creeped me out) asking if I was interested in a 1~3 month contract with a fairly esoteric stack with no overtime pay and a generous minimum wage, no lunch, 4 hour commute. I told him no and he asked if I knew anyone else that would be interested.

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

#219

Post by enjoy-your-stay » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:14 PM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #97

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 w…

Switzerland actually has quite a diverse economy, and depends a lot on the export market to the rest of Europe and tourism. That's why the strength of the Swiss Franc is always a problem for the economy here.

One downside of living here though is that the housing density is fairly high, or at least it is in Zürich. Most people live in flats and getting a bigger place with a garden for the average person is not very feasible.

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

#220

Post by namenotrequired » Sat, Aug 01, 2015, 8:14 PM UTC

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…

Nonsense. Almost all that is described in the blog is the standard across western (or at least Germanic) Europe.