Live data from Hacker News

Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

nytimes.com

51–60 of 174 posts

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#51
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest during WWII, Switzerland was surrounded by the Nazis. Literally. On all sides, and learned a harsh lesson on not just the importance of military readiness but also economic resilience. So they took what they could get.

Switzerland is the best munitioned country on earth, because: After military service, most people keep their guns and are forced to yearly practicing (or loosing the gun) etc. - they are battle-ready every time. Plus: they are the only(!) country on earth who could offer bunker protection to 95%+ of society in case of war.

They don’t keep the ammo though, so it’s quite funny to call it the “best munitioned country”.

Even if you only considered the guns, your claim seems to be false: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g...

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#52
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe actually check places yourself? I am looking at a 4 room apartment in a very nice villa next to a small national park right now, for 560€, with a train going twice an hour 15 minutes ride to the town with my potential next job. (In germany) So salaries there are lower, but so is apparently rent. Way less than 40%, more like 20%.

Could you please send name of city and district? Maybe in eastern germany, yes; Chemnitz is cheap. But most cities are by far not that cheap.

Yes, most cities are not cheap, but I am also not a city person so the place is in a remote village, but well connected. And no, not naming that concrete place as I really like to move there (again), but it is in western saxony so not that far from chemnitz (a town I don't like so much, the job itself is in a small town).

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#53

Walk around Google Geneva (edit: doh, Zurich - my coffee hasn't kicked in), Novartis Basel, or CERN and count how many "Swiss" nationals there are. A large portion are white collar immigrants from CEE or Asia, or French commuters. Switzerland's comparative advantage as an innovation hub was due to it's permissive capital structures and historic openness to white collar immigration. All that a rule like this does is i…

Swiss comp advantage started in WWII when they were used to exchange Nazis gold into other currencies - this gave them a topstart for the economic period after the war since they were perfectly connected globally and they understood to scale & keep this advantage for long time. Maybe its fading a little bit nowadays

That analysis starts too late. Swiss advantages arose from ignoring other countries' patent laws in the 1850s.

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#55

I support that. If you tried doing the inverse, for example, migrate to an Islamic country and bring over Christianity there, you would not be welcomed at all. I’m an expat and one thing I’ve learned is to integrate myself with the culture of the country that adopted me, I believe this shows respect and that I am aligned with its values and principles.

A huge majority of foreign residents in Switzerland come from Christian countries, so I don’t know what your point is.

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#56

Walk around Google Geneva (edit: doh, Zurich - my coffee hasn't kicked in), Novartis Basel, or CERN and count how many "Swiss" nationals there are. A large portion are white collar immigrants from CEE or Asia, or French commuters. Switzerland's comparative advantage as an innovation hub was due to it's permissive capital structures and historic openness to white collar immigration. All that a rule like this does is i…

What is Google Geneva? They're in Zurich.

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#57
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then maybe actually check places yourself? I am looking at a 4 room apartment in a very nice villa next to a small national park right now, for 560€, with a train going twice an hour 15 minutes ride to the town with my potential next job. (In germany) So salaries there are lower, but so is apparently rent. Way less than 40%, more like 20%.

Could you please send name of city and district? Maybe in eastern germany, yes; Chemnitz is cheap. But most cities are by far not that cheap.

[flagged]

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citizens can choose to prioritize quality of life over maximizing housing stock to increase the domestic population. “We’re all full up.” It is their country after all, it is their choice. Those who want in are not stakeholders nor have a vote.

It's amazing how quickly globalists were able to get the ideological left to switch from having riots protesting against globalism to declaring it racist to have any anti-globalist thoughts. Even more amazing are the intellectual knots they'll tie themselves up into when explaining how this came to be. The participants of the Battle of Seattle in 1999 now would be considered Nazis.

[deleted]

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#59
post #20

Western societies are aging. If you don't take in immigrants (which is basically the government becoming the far right), you're on a timer. Your economy will slow, insecurity will rise, and the far right will surge anyway. It's happening to Japan. As far as I can tell, the problem is inequality leading to widespread insecurity because the rich buy up housing. The right wing has no solutions. What you probably need is…

"Line must go up" is such a death wish and I don't see how people who consider themselves "green" can also preach the line must go up mantra. Yes, there are consequences from a shrinking population. There are also consequences from a growing one, especially one that is cultivated with no regard to anything other than maximizing the absolute number. But I guess if you're one of the people who can benefit from the line…

The system they’ve crafted relies on having enough of a working population to pay for the older benefit-receiving population. Their benefits are so large and unwieldy, they know the whole thing will fall apart if they don’t find a way to fund it.

They see this as a threat to their entire way of life.

Re: Switzerland to vote on capping population at 10M

#60

I support that. If you tried doing the inverse, for example, migrate to an Islamic country and bring over Christianity there, you would not be welcomed at all. I’m an expat and one thing I’ve learned is to integrate myself with the culture of the country that adopted me, I believe this shows respect and that I am aligned with its values and principles.

A huge majority of foreign residents in Switzerland come from Christian countries, so I don’t know what your point is.

Why is this down voted?

I live in Switzerland(not from here, migrated) and this vote is not specifically against muslims.

Post reply on HN