it appears that you are somewhat wrong. Worldwide Corruption Perceptions ranking of countries published by Transparency International 2010 Rank Country 1 Denmark 1 New Zealand 1 Singapore 4 Finland 4 Sweden 6 Canada 7 Netherlands 8 Switzerland 8th LEAST corrupt
Believe me, Switzerland is the most corrupt country on earth. Ever looked into the Jewish/Nazi problem? Have you seen how hard the Jews have had to fight to get back what rightfully belongs to them? But the Swiss just block them and keep blocking them all supported by their legal system which is in bed with the banks. See, it's all about the money there, money rules and to hell with what's right or wrong, even genocide on a massive scale. Like I said, the Swiss marketers have done a great job promoting a wholesome image of the country. Nice countryside I admit, dreadfully corrupt bankers and politicians though.
I am living in CH for nearly 6 years now and it sucks in many ways - it reminds me of GERMANY 1939. btw. my little story regarding landlords goes like this: Before our house was ready my family and I lived for 3 month in a totally overpriced appartment in Zoll**** which was paid for by my employer at the time. Not only was it loud because of construction in front of the house and on one side but we had some HouseNazis living above us that tried to give us hell about pretty much anything(dogs,kids). To make a long story short when we left he tried to claim over 7000 CHF in damages, (grass,plants,scratches, cleaning etc.) the good thing was that he didn´t expect such a resistance from my employer (whom I had instructed not to pay) and in the end they paid him 900CHF for a professional cleaning job which would have cost us definately more . Could you imagine someone new in this country and trying to figure out how to battle such a claim when lawyers charge 300/h CH is in many ways a sneaky place with a lot of hidden agendas and phobias, there are a lot of things that can be a major pain in the neck and the quality of life depends how you can handle those issues. It happens just too many times that folks from the US come to CH and tell me they wish they would have known this or that and everybody painted such a rosy picture about the swiss. In general I say if your stay is only ST .... like 1 year ... enjoy the experience but if you need to stay more than that you better watch out. to sum it up : expect to pay for everything at least double of what you were used to and sometimes even a lot more .... exception would be clothing which is reasonable and cars ( +30%). ...... a couple of observations for you to consider......... 1. ZH was voted by Conde Nast the 2nd most boring city in europe 2. one of the highest suicide rates in europe 3. one of the highest divorce rates in europe 4. weather sucks .... especially for someone who moved from FL 5. very inconvinient..... shopping,entertainment 6. very strict laws,rules and huge fines about pretty much anything (mobile blitzer,speed traps) 7. racist attitudes (blacks,,jews, arabs) 8. over 25% of the populations are non-swiss (immigrants from eastern european countries) 9. need to speak the dialect swiss german otherwise you will be isolated 10. everything is about 2 to 3x the price as you know it from home 11. living in a rental appartment can be a nightmare if you are not careful 12. swiss are friendly on the surface but very difficult to deal with when problems arise(narrow minded) 13. consumer desert anglo-saxons come her to take advantage of higher salaries and squeeze out as much as they can - if you have teenage kids watch out because with 99% certainty they will hate the experience.
It is called milking the cow,hahahaha. I am sure you are happy thats why the SVP is so keen to get even more Ausländer into the country. That is the joke when I see that I kick around the little swissies in my office every day and they cannot do anything about it . They are still desperate for quallified professionals but nobody likes them - what is CH anyway ? In 100 years this contry(if you even can call it that) will not exist anymore.
Charity is definitely a passion for us. Giving you a few pennies a month to help you helping your family back there is definitely no problem for us. But I am definitely admiring your courage to sacrifice a decent life in your former country to go work and live in foggy German-speaking Zoll****. felix ab omni laude