What’s it really like living in Switzerland? I’ve heard many anecdotes saying that it’s very clean and very pretty, but very boring - is there any truth to this? What are the pros and cons? Is the standard of living really that high? Are there such things as Swiss slums? 
I would like to know. Actually, if anybody knows how the hell the Swiss health system works that would be nice: my agent says the client has to tell me and the client says it’s the agent…
Wealthy, commercial and civil. Switzerland also has taken in a large number of refugees and immigrants recently, in proportion to its population, which kind of extends the poly nature of the national identity. The UN also has a major office in Geneva.
Swiss who want to work in other industries have many directions to choose from and they do. France and Italy for fashion, art or culture. Germany, Sweden & Norway for heavy industry, the UK to step up finance & insurance careers. So there tends to be more diversity in the young people than those settled into a career stream.
Like the other affluent european countries there is a serviceable public health system.
Also, the women are beautiful and the men look odd. Why? It’s a mystery. And they don’t like Austrians much, so there is a measure of judgment in the national character. I plan to live there for a few years.
Slums? No, even the public housing is good.
Very expensive place, though. Even Michael Schumacher (who owns something around 650 million Euros) was complaining about the price of groceries.
And my professor in media psychology told us that Swiss TV shows were hard to sell into other countries because the Swiss had their own type of humor, what with “being cooped up in the middle of high mountains”, she said. The only Swiss guy I met in person actually was rather quirky. I suspect, though, that this had little to do with the proximity of the Alps, which mostly led him to go snowboarding all the time.
Being mountainous, the railroads have many retaining walls. I have never seen graffiti on them, or elsewhere. I got to Bonn and met my German friends; they reported they consider the Swiss to be a little too ‘German’ for them.
Last time I was in Switzerland, a colleague of mine got slightly tipsy and sang a few songs on his way back to the hotel. Swiss police followed him up to his room and issued him an on-the-spot fine! It seems that having fun is tightly regulated there…
Many years ago I was chatting with a Swiss guy in a pub in Santa Monica. This is basically what he said.
I don’t remember if the Swiss guy told me this, or if I read it some where; but I’ve heard that the Swiss are very protective of their peace and that one can be fined for being too noisy. (I remember reading an article about a Swiss guy who turbocharged his Yamaha V-Max. He said he had to be very careful where he road it because it was so loud he could be arrested – not to mention fast.)
A good friend of mine and her husband (Americans) lived in Switzerland for about a year and a half. This would be, oh, about seven years ago. He got a project-based job with the U.N. and she went with him for the adventure. She had a small son who was about two years old then. She initially was a “stay at home” mom. She found the Swiss to be very cool, very much a MYOB people. There wasn’t a lot of overt anti-Americanism then (it was pre- 9/11), but more generalized “us” versus “foreigners” mentality. It was just that the citizens who were Swiss didn’t seem to have a lot of time for people who were not. They were not very welcoming and she was very lonely. She also thought they were pretty humorless and excessively devoted to orderliness. And as others have said, things were insanely expensive.
She liked things much better once she too got a job with the U.N., just sort of a filing “make-work” position, but something that got her out of the house and gave her a reason to interact with people. But after 18 months there, her bottom line was that while she liked “Switzerland” with its central location, beautiful scenery, and cleanliness, she didn’t really like the Swiss.
My first experience with the Swiss is from a few years ago, doing some IT work involving (among others) a factory in Buchs-St. Galen.
The people were great. We found it terribly funny that they were so much like cartoon swiss: serious, exact, and they had their gripes with each other but they never, never aired the dirty bedsheets in front of outsiders - even when they expressed disagreement with us or each other it was done in an exact and polite fashion.
The way people drove in that corner of the country was more similar to how it’s done in Northern Italy (I haven’t driven in Rome or Napoli, I’m sure they have their own flavor of suicide) than to what I’m seeing now in Basel. “Down there” and in the direction of the Italian border, a highway that most people on this board would see as “two lanes” became three. You see, those pretty lines on the road are there to mark the central spot for your hood. So you have left and right two lanes where half of each car is on the shoulder with the center of the hoods aligned with the full line, and in the center one where the center of the hoods goes over the dashed line.
They were terribly offended when someone asked about buying Lindt’s. There is a chocolate factory in the village! Why would you buy big town chocolates? It’s not like the chocolate is better because it’s from a big town! Oh, uh, sorry, so where do you buy this local chocolate? In the supermarket. Uh, thank you. You’re welcome, hmph.
Beautiful place, I loved the reflection of the mountains and houses on the lake.
Basel is seen by many of my coworkers as “a quaint little village”. Being from a “village” the same size which does not have a permanent theater nor one quarter as many museums, I find their notions quite, ah, stupid, what can I say. If someone’s idea of “a big city” is Frankfurt, they can keep it, I’ll take Basel! People go shopping to France as a matter of course; some of the supermarkets in St. Louis (the french village which is basically a part of Basel where they speak a different language) give tickets in both languages and with every price in both coins. I see people taking one wallet out of the handbag, saying “ach, nein” and looking for the other wallet every day in the Swiss side.
Driving around here can be pretty complicated but, instead of the southern approach where “whomever enters the intersection faster has the right of way”, here “everybody stops and whomever arrived seconds makes an ‘after you’ sign”. There’s drivers with Gorilla Syndrome but I’m afraid they exist everywhere - and most of the ones who pass me after blinking their longs, then proceed to continue at the exact same pace (but now in front of me instead of behind) have Lörrach plates, German.
The people I worked with in BSG, including hotel guys, people at the train station, etc were very efficient. My experience here so far has been worse: it took a month to be able to open a bank account (sigh), which I need in order to be able to wire money to/from Spain through the banking system, but in order to use direct payment I had to get a Post account (which, being from the Post and not from a bank, doesn’t allow me to transfer funds into it directly from Spain or deposit a Spanish cheque I had). At least the Post account didn’t need so long to get set up. Don’t get me started on what I think about Swisscom 
How is it long term? Dunnow. Haven’t been here long enough to tell you. But I’m under the impression that people who think Frankfurt is “a great city” won’t like any of Switzerland.
The thing i like about Switzerland; they manage to keep things clean! one amazing fact-you can actually SWIM in the rivers, even where they pass through urban areas. compared with the Swiss, our urban rivers are sewers! I also like the fact that people are responsible-they don’t throw trash in the streets-Boston is a pigsty by comparison. Of course, it helps that you have a small country-you realize this is all we’ve got-better take care of it!
Being a Swiss living in Switzerland, of course I am somewhat biased. Having lived for seven years in the US, I think I can make some comparison.
Prices in Switzerland are high, e.g. compared to Germany, but saleries match the cost of living, therefore the general standard of living is high. When I returned from New York City to Zurich, imy salery doubled, while i paid around the same amount for my flat ( a studio in NY, a two bedroom flat in ZH) and the same amount of taxes. Social services are relatively good, and unemployment rates are low compared to neighboring countries, so you don’t see slums or homeless people. Switzerland is a small country (137 miles by 216 miles)- you can drive across the whole country in a few hours, so everything is close together, but you get a lot of variety, in the types of landscapes you can see, the culture, and even the climate. Switzerland has four national languages: German speaking central Switzerland culturally is influenced by Germany, the french speaking western Switzerland by France, the Italian speaking south by Italy, and the mountanous southeast has its own language. See http://www.about.ch/ for more information.
The social culture appears to be more introverted in Switzerland, so it takes more of an effort to make contact than it does in the states, don’t take it personal, it is the same for natives.
As of 2 Augusts ago:
Awesome bus system. The ability to pay one price for 12 hours of unlimited use is something I wish we had.
$16 for a 4-nugget un-supersized combo meal at McD’s (figure cost differential between that & what you pay; multiply the cost of everything by that factor and you’ll be close).
Great wine; possibly better than of France.
At Casino Du Lac, skip the slot machines, as they almost never pay. Go for table games & you’ll do better than you will at AC or Vegas. We managed $500 in winnings to offset a weeks worth of Swiss prices. (Hum “Du Lac is the Perfect Place” when you pick up your winnings. They Love that. not.)
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How much of Switzerland speaks German, and how much speaks French? The only Swiss I’ve ever known (two brothers) spoke French as their mother tongue. Are there other languages spoken widely? There’s an explosion of businesses in Israel catering to Spanish- and Russian-speakers given the recent phenomenon of immigration from Russia (etc) and Argentina (etc). Someone mentioned that Switzerland has taken a lot of refugees in lately; is there a lot of visible language influence?
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“Both coins”? Aren’t both countries in the EU?
This is really surprising to me. Over here the stereotype about Europeans is that they pay half their salary back in taxes. I’m sure New York withholds a lot of taxes compared to, say, Utah, but it’s still refreshing to know that the Swiss can still provide top-class public services at a basically American tax rate. New York, apparently, has a lot to learn.
Switzerland is not in the EU, and quite a few of the countries that are in the EU do not use the Euro.
I paid a similar amount of taxes in the US (where I wasn’t anywhere near a top earner) and in Spain (where I’m at the highest tax bracket). The services I got in Spain were much better, but then, you guys are the sheriff of the world… most of us don’t spend anywhere near as much in our militaries. It’s not so much different tax volumes as what gets done with them.
Which ones? I thought that was kind of the point of the Euro.
I spent seven summers teaching at a private school near Lugano, Switzerland - it was beautiful, and quite expensive for tourists. However, if you live and work there, it isn’t all that expensive.
Although I never saw a “slum” in Switzerland, some of the apartments are not particularly fancy and would be considered low-income housing in the USA, even though there is a certain charm about them.
And in Zurich, I saw LOTS of heroin addicts roaming the streets. Seems to be quite a druggie problem in that city - but it was still a very clean city, and I would go back there anytime.
The Swiss have a reputation as being “cold fish” and they certainly don’t warm up to strangers quickly - but once you have lived there for awhile, they can be a fun group to hang around with. Met lots of nice people and we still keep in touch despite not having been back in a decade.
All in all - I could see myself living in Switzerland - and the southern part (Ticino area) has palm trees and is quite balmy for the better part of the year - not at all what people expect to see when they go there!
The UK for starters. Also countries who are in the Eurozone may get kicked out if they don’t fulfill certain criteria (won’t ever happen, France should have been kicked out last year).
Many of the new arrivals had been using the DM before we went Euro, so they were using Euros before even being in the EU. But new arrivals who did use their own coin must again fulfill certain criteria before being able to move into the Euro (this does get enforced).
from Statistical information about Switzerland
native Swiss only: 74% German, 20% French, 4% Italian, 1% Romansh, 1% other
Total population: 65% German, 18% French, 10% Italian, 1% Romansh, 6% other
All Swiss learn at least one second language beside their native language at school, for German speaking Swiss, French is the usual second language. If you attend a higher school, at least one more “foreign” language is mandatory, even if you choose the mathematical/scientific track. Here, English is the most popular choice. Currently, efforts are under way to offer English rather than French as first foreign language, or to teach the two languages already at grade school level.
At least here in Zuerich, many movie theaters show the same movie both in the german-synchronized version in the afternoon and in the original version with german/french subtitles in the evening, and there was quite an ourcry of protest then one of the major chains of movie theaters recently proposed to stop this practice and show only the synchronized version.
Switzerland is not member of the European Union, its currency is the Swiss Franc, although many shops will accept Euro (at a not very favorable exchange rate, I am afraid). However, Switzerland has many bilateral treaties with the EU that facilitate the interchange with the EU countries. Every few years there is a referendum on our joining the EU, but so far, the “No”'s always had the majority. But then, it was only in 2002 when the Swiss voters finally agreed for Switzerland to join the UN!
Switzerland is a direct democracy, which means that many things are decided by referendum, which means that you have to convince a majority of the Swiss citizen that a change in policy is a good idea before you can even start to implement it. This can slow down things quite a bit, and ensures that issues are discussed in great detail. In addition, there is no majority party in Switzerland, even the top executive authority of Switzerland, the Bundesrat, consists of seven members representing four political parties. The presidency changes every year amongst the seven members of the Bundesrat. Therefore, Swiss politics is very much governed by compromise, before any issue is put to the vote, the interested parties have to spend a lot of effort to find a balance that is acceptable to a majority before putting an issue to the vote.
People can take direct influence by two means:
Initiative: 100’000 citizens can request a voting about a change or extension of the Bundesverfassung (“constitution”) or the Bundesgesetzt (“federal law”).
Referendum: If the Bundesrat wants to change or extend the Bundesverfassung (“constitution”) or the Bundesgesetz (“federal law”), 50’000 citizens can request a voting about it.
Similar direct democratic processes govern the politics at the level of the 26 Cantons (States) of Switzerland and at the level of the individual communities, as Switzerland is a very decentralized, federalistic nation.