Am i the only one slightly concerned by the fact it is SWISS info dot ch reporting about swiss itself? If DPRKinfo.kr would write DPRK is the best, we all laugh?
we all know that this report is a joke.
Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
201–210 of 243 posts
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#202I always feel like it is unfair how we place different European nations in same category as the US in these rankings or whatever, and for the US, we average over all the states in the US. As homogenous the US is, different states have different economies, different laws, in some cases, some slight but important cultural differences. Is it really fair to say have the US compete on terms of "competitiveness" or in othe…
It's kind of hard to do that, because it really depends. You could also go down to city levels, which again would change a lot of things. For really big cities you could probably even see the district level.
Yes, there are slightly different laws and politicians, but also different infrastructure in different districts.
The are multiple political, cultural and so on levels. Countries and states inside countries often don't work the same and the hierarchical structures might be different.
Taking only EU and US already shows the huge difference. Take really banal things. The countries in the EU are also all part of the Council of Europe, which doesn't have a lot to do with the EU other than the geographic location. But they create certain rules, such as a common view against capital punishment (they actually caused that in some countries). On the other hand in the US you have very different views.
It's not easy to compare complex political, cultural structures and economic competitiveness in itself is kind of a weird thing to measure, cause there are so many layers of that term itself. Now while it is clear that this isn't meant think about all kinds of movements, be it for money less societies, be it people that want gold or resources. Describing economies can include only the monetary part, but might include goods, infrastructure, even health. And for such a report one can come up with kind of arbitrary ways of measuring things, giving them a value.
Now, I think many here know how hard it can be to measure non-complex things, how hard it can be to get the KPIs right and for how a startup those can be different and how those KPIs can change from one day to another (and that might or might not make sense).
Now comparing countries and economies is a wholly different thing.
Also I am not saying that what was done is bad or whatever. It certainly is not. I just think that people often interpret too much in those things. Taking different, equally qualified people to create such a report could result in rather big differences, because what makes sense to put in there is rather subjective and for example influenced by culture.
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Salaries are high and daycare is expensive deliberately, or so I've heard. It's a cultural decision - they want women to stay at home with the children and raise them, so the salaries are calibrated to be high enough for a nuclear family. That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working ho…
> That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working hours, in order to reinforce traditional family setups. Just an anecdote: We are (expat) remote workers raising kids on the Swiss countryside. Our fellows haven't started school yet but we are really looking forward to having them come hom…
Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired.
State mandates that. However, the tax is so low, that is doesn't really matter.
On the other side, the cost of living is so high (Zuerich area) so that it really worth it if you plan to _move_ there for the rest of your live.
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working hours, in order to reinforce traditional family setups. Just an anecdote: We are (expat) remote workers raising kids on the Swiss countryside. Our fellows haven't started school yet but we are really looking forward to having them come hom…
Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired. State mandates that. However, the tax is so low, that is doesn't really matter. On the other side, the cost of living is so high (Zuerich area) so that it really worth it if you plan to _move_ there for the rest of your live.
this really sounds like bullshit. a freelancer is nothing else but a company made up by a single individual.
are they alien to the concept of service companies?
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was making this point a few weeks ago and after looking into it more, I still think it's a valuable point to raise, but the truth is more nuanced than I expected. States in the US vary in nominal GSP per capita by only 2x — from Mississippi at $35K to Delaware at $70K. In the EU, it ranges from Bulgaria at €6K to Ireland at €55K. (This excludes DC and Luxembourg, which are outliers in many ways.) In fact, even Miss…
>Mississippi's GDP per capita being similar to that of France, Italy or Spain is really hard to reconcile with the fact that many of us would love to live in the latter countries and couldn't be paid to move to Mississippi. It seems to me that there are many people who say things like that about most of the less-populated states. To be honest, I'm glad. After moving to SF from a small Midwestern city, I've realized t…
Cool, when are you leaving? Because my friends who actually like the Bay can't find housing. You know where the door is.
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
My experience of Switzerland is similar. Things are very much done according to a formula. If you're an enterprise looking for a Java developer, only a guy whose CV says "Java" will do. C# is some other planet. I think it's a Germanic thing, they expect very specific qualifications. I remember meeting a guy who had a degree as a food chemist. I asked him what jobs he was after, and he said ... food chemist. There is…
Salaries are high and daycare is expensive deliberately, or so I've heard. It's a cultural decision - they want women to stay at home with the children and raise them, so the salaries are calibrated to be high enough for a nuclear family. That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working ho…
I would say that the food is expensive in Switzerland because they want to strengthen their farmers and national food industry.
Switzerland is topographically not really great for farming (high mountains, no big flat areas, not enough warmth), so they have some disadvantages there. All countries surrounding Switzerland are part of the EU, so there are cheap farming products in the shops.
I am living on the border to Switzerland and it is crazy what meat costs in Switzerland compared to Austria. You are not allowed to import much meat, so you have to buy it in Switzerland if you live there.
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working hours, in order to reinforce traditional family setups. Just an anecdote: We are (expat) remote workers raising kids on the Swiss countryside. Our fellows haven't started school yet but we are really looking forward to having them come hom…
Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired. State mandates that. However, the tax is so low, that is doesn't really matter. On the other side, the cost of living is so high (Zuerich area) so that it really worth it if you plan to _move_ there for the rest of your live.
Last time I tried to get a gig in Switzerland as a freelancer, they told me there is no such thing as a freelancer there, every one must be hired.
That's absolutely wrong, you've been lied to. Which part of Switzerland was it?
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
You probably mean Urs Hölzle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urs_H%C3%B6lzle ps: expats usually remain expats almost everywhere (as they tend to stick together), what's so inflexible about .ch in particular?
From an acquaintance who lived there, it's a bit of a nanny state, neighbours will complain about anything. She was walking home one day and saw a couple watching television in the house wearing headphones, presumably so as not to disturb / annoy the neighbours!
I do that after a certain time at night and I live in the UK. I'd be mortified if I thought I was causing a noise to my neighbours and I'd hate it if they did it to me.
It's more a case of treat others how you want to be treated - I hate being on the receiving end of neighbour noise so I take care not to be the cause of it myself.
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
Salaries are high and daycare is expensive deliberately, or so I've heard. It's a cultural decision - they want women to stay at home with the children and raise them, so the salaries are calibrated to be high enough for a nuclear family. That's why you get things like schools sending children home at lunchtime or on Wednesday afternoons: the school schedules are deliberately set up to be incompatible with working ho…
I would say that the food is expensive in Switzerland because they want to strengthen their farmers and national food industry. Switzerland is topographically not really great for farming (high mountains, no big flat areas, not enough warmth), so they have some disadvantages there. All countries surrounding Switzerland are part of the EU, so there are cheap farming products in the shops. I am living on the border to…
Interesting, I always assumed there would be no protection laws as it has free trade agreements with the EU, but there are actually exceptions (from Wikipedia).
"The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organisation and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.[1] The organisation operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the EU's single market.[2] ... It allows the EFTA-EEA states to participate in the EU's Internal Market without being members of the EU. They adopt almost all EU legislation related to the single market, except laws on agriculture and fisheries. "
Re: Switzerland is the world’s most competitive economy
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not sure which part I’m missing here, but I’m living in Zürich and I pay about 40% taxes, not merely 11%…?
I'm amazed by this 40% which you and zavandor are paying. I'm living in Zurich as well and I'm not paying even half of that (and no I'm not working as a cashier). If I'm looking at the tax rates of the canton Zurich then the maximum you can be charged for, cantonal and federal taxes combined, is 26.2%: http://taxsummaries.pwc.com/uk/taxsummaries/wwts.nsf/ID/Swit...
You forgot municipal tax, which is 119% of cantonal in Zürich. 40% tax rate that I was talking is marginal tax rate, i.e. from a certain and fairly low point the state will pocket 400 Fr in taxes out of every additional 1000 Fr of your income. And then there's 5.1% AHV and other social things on top...