The swiss are soup nazis like that. I am shocked that you did not know about these "cultural issues" before transplanting your poor family there. Apparently you can get fined for falling down on the ski hill. Seems that they have a zero tolerance policy towards stupidity...hahaha
Why do you ask? You thinking about quitting your day-trader job and going to the mountains to clean up skiing lodges?
Have anymore stories? TBH i feel shocked by this, I had no idea Switzerland was like this... I guess I, like so many others, have pictures of rosey hillsides stuck in my head when I think of Switzerland.
Make up your mind on the basis of these reports. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/05/0526_best_places_to_live_2010/1.htm http://top10hell.com/10-best-countries-to-live-in-2010/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/interactive-infographic-of-the-worlds-best-countries.html Felix (a happy Swiss, back in Switzerland, having spent many years all over the world)
I still remember the time GM got war reparations from US taxpayers for GM factories that got bombed during WW2 because they were making military vehicles for the Reich. Switzerland is no cleaner or dirtier than any other country, same stuff happens everywhere.
There are many more stories like this I could talk about - I even thought about writing a book with the title ``Switzerland 2011 - Germany 1939`` where has my individuality gone ? Forget these links and statistics others name here they are useless because every person is different ! I would call myself an insider because I work in an industry in a very senior position where I am exposed every day to these issues and have experienced things on so many levels that I know what I am talking about and wouldn`t call them outliers or just someones personal opinion. I define individuality as : The aggregate of qualities and characteristics that distinguish one person or thing from others . I am sure that there are foreigners out there that are quite happy living in CH but the key is from which background socially and financially do you come from. The bottom line is that the lower you rank on the totem pole the saver you feel in that country because there is a system in place (I simplyfy things due to space) that does not let you fall through the cracks and guarentees you a certain standard of living. The other extreme are the VIP`s (>10 Mio $) from sport,showbusiness and industry. For them CH is a great place to hide their money and assets and save taxes (mostly legally) But these people mostly refrain from interacting with the general ch population and realy do not participate in the day-to-day swiss live - they come and go and jetset between their estates - which is fine for the swiss and the swiss banks because they care about tax revenue(which btw. has been secretly negotiated on an individual basis Kanton by Kanton (state level) ) and prefer if you just leave your money at the door and go. Now both of these extremes on the totem pole are happy campers - why wouldn`t they - they have maximized what CH is able to offer them for their own good. I hate to put things in purely financial terms, but frankly this is what it boils down to (simplyfied). Foreigners have been accepted for decades on two premises 1. have enough income/qualified professional to support their high price structure and local trade which guarentees the swiss a certain standard of living or 2. provide cheap labour (eastern europeans) similar to the Turks in germany in the early 1970s. Now I invite you to the following experience : since germany is not far away and their prices are anywhere from 30-100% cheaper what would you say if a foreigner has bought a big house from a swiss but uses no swiss for the renovations due to cost savings ? We are talking hostile atmosphere now in the town you are living in because this is not the way it is supposed to happen - the foreigner is supposed to use local contractors and pay double the price because this was the premise under which we let him in our beautiful country. As long as you are a paying customer in whatever form or shape - things are o.k. the moment this relationship changes you better watch out. Now going back to the top of my reply regarding individuality : for me this is very important as a person but the swiss like conformity - which is quite the opposite - if you feel suffocated by their constant effort to make sure everybody is equal nobody should deviate from the norm and the constant ``Little Brother`` is watching over you ( I am speaking about police,locals and local entities) - which is realy pathetic and reminds me about germany 1939 in so many ways. The swiss are mostly passive -agressive but sneaky with a lot of hidden agendas and phobias.
the classic in CH are the speed traps : mobile and fixed. It is a national hobby of the police to gang up on drivers. Sometimes they are hiding behind trash cans or even use them as camourflage - hilarious. I think the fines here are one of the highest in the world - so is road rage,hahahaha
Depending where in Switzerland, it would be between 55-65k CHF or $67-79k. The median salary is ~80k CHF or $100k. Ninna