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

311–320 of 462 posts

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

#311

Post by lordnacho »

KTamasEnty wrote: post #244
lordnacho wrote: post #114

I live in Switzerland, and have lived in two other countries. Also have lots of connections in the US. Here's my take: 1) You have work-life balance, but it is forced on you. Especially women. If you go out around noon, you will see loads of school kids walking home to get their lunch. Full time childcare is CHF30K at my local nursery. School is free, but lunch will cost you extra. And the nursery has holidays, btw.…

RE: car parking story, I see you have not been to Sweden before, we have mastered the art of passive-aggressive notes here.

I'm not surprised. The Germanic countries have the weirdest people in terms of social awkwardness. And I grew up in one.

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

#312

Post by lordnacho »

atmosx wrote: post #304

> Instead of taxing salaries at high percentages — a practice that puts most of the tax burden on the middle class, where most income comes from wages and not from capital gains — Switzerland immediately taxes dividends at a maximum of 35 percent and also has a wealth-based tax. That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their e…

Where is this coming from? I got a dividend in Switzerland, and it isn't taxed at 35%. What they do is they keep 35% until the next year, at which time you can have it. Dividend tax is a much lower amount.

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

#313

Post by semi-extrinsic »

adventured wrote: post #180
noja wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Switzerland is one of... three maybe (Luxemburg, Norway) countries with higher standard of living than the US. You have to be kidding me. The average standard of living in the US is not the fourth best in the world. The US only got universal heathcare this century, it has a ludicrous work-life balance, the minimum wage in some states is very low (and sometimes includes tipping!), the infant mortality rate is lower…

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…

That index is almost comical. They prefer quoting the average wage over the median, the indicator of water quality is asking people whether they are satisfied with their drinking water, and the US wins the category "percentage of people with access to an indoor flushing toilet" due to having successfully eradicated the traditional way of living for native americans.

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

#314

Post by comrade1 »

refurb wrote: post #272
comrade1 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switzerland has considerably lower taxes than the u.s. (I'm an american living in switzerland)

Incomes taxes or all taxes?

Income taxes.

As for sales tax, it's 7% here. Lower than most of Europe, and lower than some parts of the u.s., but not all parts of the u.s. But the low taxes more than make up for it. (about 1/2 compared to the u.s., but depends on your income level)

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

#315

Post by atmosx »

lordnacho wrote: post #312
atmosx wrote: post #304

> Instead of taxing salaries at high percentages — a practice that puts most of the tax burden on the middle class, where most income comes from wages and not from capital gains — Switzerland immediately taxes dividends at a maximum of 35 percent and also has a wealth-based tax. That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their e…

Where is this coming from? I got a dividend in Switzerland, and it isn't taxed at 35%. What they do is they keep 35% until the next year, at which time you can have it. Dividend tax is a much lower amount.

Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Switzerland#Federa...

http://www.lawyersswitzerland.com/dividend-tax-in-switzerlan...

ps. Is there any change you're tax-evading? :-) j/k probably to get taxed at 35% you need to be pass a specific amount or something (not sure though).

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

#316

Post by comrade1 »

atmosx wrote: post #304

> Instead of taxing salaries at high percentages — a practice that puts most of the tax burden on the middle class, where most income comes from wages and not from capital gains — Switzerland immediately taxes dividends at a maximum of 35 percent and also has a wealth-based tax. That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their e…

Taxes in Switzerland are quite low. Federal around 2 or 3 %, and at the state level, from 7% to 22%.

Wealth tax is usually less than 1%.

But it is always a level society.

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

#317

Post by ceronman »

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?

> Vacation time is also the lowest (2 weeks) compared to Europe which on average has 4 weeks of vacation time.

As far as I know, no law requires employers to give their workers paid vacation days in the US. Although the most common vacation time is 2 weeks, there are some jobs with no paid vacation time at all. Also, from what I've heard, what the article mentions about people feeling guilty for taking vacation time is very real in American's work culture.

Here in the Netherlands, in contrast, the minimum paid vacation time by law is four times the number of working days in a week. For full time that's 20 days. Typically, companies provide a bit more than that.

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

#318

Post by lordnacho »

atmosx wrote: post #315
lordnacho wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this coming from? I got a dividend in Switzerland, and it isn't taxed at 35%. What they do is they keep 35% until the next year, at which time you can have it. Dividend tax is a much lower amount.

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Switzerland#Federa... http://www.lawyersswitzerland.com/dividend-tax-in-switzerlan... ps. Is there any change you're tax-evading? :-) j/k probably to get taxed at 35% you need to be pass a specific amount or something (not sure though).

It says it can be deducted in full. That's not really a tax now, is it?

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

#319

Post by atmosx »

comrade1 wrote: post #316
atmosx wrote: post #304

> Instead of taxing salaries at high percentages — a practice that puts most of the tax burden on the middle class, where most income comes from wages and not from capital gains — Switzerland immediately taxes dividends at a maximum of 35 percent and also has a wealth-based tax. That's the secret. The Swiss are brave enough to tax the wealth. They are not afraid to do so. They also are extremely respectful of their e…

Taxes in Switzerland are quite low. Federal around 2 or 3 %, and at the state level, from 7% to 22%. Wealth tax is usually less than 1%. But it is always a level society.

Taxes in Bulgaria are quite low too (10% for businesses and 5% when you pay dividends). Salaries are extremely low too, compared to Switzerland. Unfortunately Bulgaria doesn't look like Switzerland at all, I wonder why.

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

#320

Post by comrade1 »

Tomte wrote: post #182
Sfi81 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you have to remember that the Swiss have both better income sources (assisting the world's wealthy & many corporations evade/optimize taxes for instance) and don't have military expenses and such due to neutrality. While many problems of the US are of its own creation due to either ideology or wealth dominating politics (healthcare & education spring to mind), it is quite unfair to compare what the Swiss governm…

The number one reason for Switzerland's wealth is that they were clever enough to stay out of wars as much as possible. Other countries start from ruins and rubble periodically. Switzerland grows its prosperity incrementally, without catastrophes.

They were lucky to not get invaded by the Germans but they totally expected to be invaded and built a defense strategy based on this belief that lasted until the 1990s.

Twice the Germans started the process of putting together a Swiss invasion and gave up early because they realized they would have lost.

Post reply on HN