The Dark Side of Switzerland Incredible Economic Success

Switzerland GDP per capita is the second highest in the world. True to their moniker of being a developed country, services are the biggest contributor to Switzerland’s GDP growth at 74%, then industry or manufacturing at 25%, and the agricultural sector at 1%.

One other thing that is synonymous with Switzerland is its Swiss Banks. They’re considered the “Bank of the World” where the rich and famous choose to safekeeping keep their earnings with relatively low taxes and absolute confidentiality.

#switzerland #swissbank

[ABb-rdwj]

This country has to be the darkest in the world, The World Economic Forum is there.

[miola]

i‘m from switzerland but i think it is so strange that we have almost no wistelblower about any dark dark side here.
I have no clue what is going on but I can imagine there are so many dark sides that are still so much in the darkness that even most of the swiss people don‘t know about it. That we were „neutral“ during war is just 1 of the strange signs. banks and money. direct connection to the vatican and the soldiers we always send there. all the enormous bunkers and tunnel systems. WEF… so much more strange things…

[Haaezly]

One of the highest suicide rates? I wouldnt realy concider Nr.74 as "one of the highest"

[danielastoica]

There is no labor shortage, but the more foreigners come, the more they can decrease salaries

[auxmike]

Watching this as Credit Suiss is collapsing!

[stilllearning]

Credit Suisse had problems only in investment banking branch (after having been forced to pay billions in fines to the US government recently). At the moment the US offer the second highest level of bank secrecy (the first are Cayman Islands). Unlike European banks, the banks in US are not participating in CRS (tax information exchange system) and became the biggest non-reporting banking space. This happened after pressing many Swiss banks to pay hundreds of millions penalties and signing FATCA “agreements” - unilateral obligations to report all private clients to the US authorities.

[stilllearning]

The rate of vacancy of flats in Switzerland is so low that people have to compete for rental properties. The rate of foreigners in Switzerland is one of the highest in Europe and immigration (mostly from EU) is increasing its population every year due to the high living standards, excellent infrastructure, low crime rates, high salaries and work ethics.

[williamFlat]

As the % of GDP, the ranking of Switzerland in terms of money laundering is 3rd, following Belgium and the UK. But, with regard to the absolute value, USA is the champion by far.

[Haaezly]

Kinda ironic talking about Credit Suisse at the exact moment it is completely colapsing lol

[ericburton]

On the expat thing, I think part of it is a general misunderstanding of foreigners on Switzerland (and many northern/central European countries in general) before moving there. Online and through other media we are taught two things: northern and central Europeans are superior to North Americans, and northern and central Europeans are much more liberal than North Americans. So when you go to a country like Switzerland and even people who vote for the Social Democrat Party sound like Fox News when it comes to immigration, integration, and identity it comes as a shock (and this comes to a shock to the Swiss when you tell them, but it is soooo true and not bad in and of itself). And then there is a different view of being friendly, which to be honest I understand the Swiss point of view but it comes as a shock. To the Swiss, friendly is the adjective of friend (which again, to be fair it is). You are friendly to your friends, being friendly to strangers is seen as being "fake". To North Americans, who are taught "you don't have to be friends with someone to be friendly to them", this can come across as rude (although most expats I know eventually like the Swiss way of interacting with strangers because it takes way less energy, the sweet spot would be everyone else acting like Americans or Canadians and you getting to act Swiss without feeling guilty). And Americans trying to sound cool and sophisticated who make expat youtube videos often use a weird coconut vs peach analogy to try and explain Swiss culture, but this analogy A) isn't really true in my opinion, and B) sets up false self fulfilling prophecies in how both Swiss expats act in the US and Americans act (or pretend to act) in Switzerland. This again I think leads to disapointment because when online all you ever hear are positives, when you experience something that might not be a big deal thats less than perfect, because your expectations are sky high, you feel let down. And hearing all specifics about why Switzerland is better than your country but then the person saying "nobody is perfect, niether are the Swiss" doesn't solve this at all, its just PC filler that people feel they "need" to say.

Everyplace doesn't have to be the same and there are many wonderful things about Switzerland and many wonderful things about alot of countries (including countries that don't get the hype / positive attention Switzerland does). A hard part about living or even visiting abroad, is that while most people in countries like Switzerland have an almost phobia about exclaiming their superiority as either a country or people, they get super defensive when outsiders point out anything can could possibly be construed as negative.

[abbc]

The dark hole in people's brains. Why do people think that
Swiss banks filled with foreign money would give the average
Swiss person even one franc?
Foreigners want their money back one day in the future.
Are you automatically rich just because you live near a bank?
Why, then, does the average Swiss own a quarter of a million francs in assets if
there is no link between the foreign money
in the bank and the private assets of Mr. and Mrs. Swiss.

[kondoku]

I think that switzerlands shortage of owne properties is more becouse you can not build a house everywhere you want but you need to build it on specific zones that are marked. Becouse the amount of People that live in switzerland is growing really fast and it doesnt give enough space it seems logical to me that less people owne theire owne propertie and that it gets more expensive fast. Still i agree with most of the points and i also think its not perfect to have so many people that not owne their own property.

[Bobbeyy_eightySIX]

The high rate of suicides is also from educational pressure and inequality.
Source: I grew up and lived 20 years there

[tibsyy]

Switzerland has a lot of immigrants which helps for manufacturers to keep ages low in these sectors.

[Gastonfbmaniak]

Switzerland is a paradise only for rich people. But for the average people, it is hell due to its horribly high cost of living. It is more than 30 years that consumers' prices are rising constantly (rent and health insurance are what most destroy the people's purchasing power). But the problem is that if high salaries follow this evolution, average and low salaries do not. It benefits to the rich ones, of course, but for the rest of the people, it is slow general impoverishment. You say that 30 % of the people own their own apartment or house... but in reality, it is not the case... because this rate is much lower, and among the ones who "own" their apartment or house, more than 95 % of them are in debt with mortgages, which means the real owner is not them, but the banks ! And the most vulnerable are the retirees. Because pensions are going low since many years. This is the reason why so many Swiss retirees flee the country once they retire from work, and choose to go to live to countries with much lower cost of living (and with no winters too...). If they do not do this, they have no other choice than going to beg at social welfare offices for state helps which are quite limited.

[itsnowjoke]

Expats are generally very happpy in my experience with. Great salaries living in a beautiful country with lower taxes and low crime owning a home is not an issue in Switzerland the rental property is very high quality and tenants have good protection in the law, high immigration ( too high in the opinion of most swiss ) has put excessive pressure on housing and other services especially in Zurich and Zug . How many countries with over 25 percent foreigners would be as accommodating as Switzerland ?? Imagine your country had 25 percent foreigners its a miracle the we handle that very well in most instances

[Trs]

I’m a Swiss citizen whose lives out of the country for most of my life and to be honest, it’s a beautiful place to live either way.
We all know there is questionable methods for how well run the country’s public services and salaries are. It is probobly the same in places like Dubai as well. I personally don’t mind moving back there someday because of certain job opportunities but dealing with the housing competition and judgmental attitude of a lot of Swiss people (which is definitely not somthing me and my family have imagined).

[manuelconde]

"Foreigners unwilling to make the move"

I don't think so...

There are about 2 millions foreigners in Switzerland (about 25% of total population).


In 2022 about 80 000 people imigrate in Switzerland so that it is 19 000 more than the previous year...

(source : Switzerland Federal Statistics)

[beevjoy]

You should have researched about the Marcos. Mrs. Marcos despite the 900 cases filed against her in New York for money laundering and racketeering she was found not guilty for lack of evidences connecting her to the money trail by the US court and in the Philippines cases against the Marcos family were dropped for lack of evidences.

[UrsBaumgartner-mdnv]

Yes, everything is expensive. But everything is of high quality. Go buy cheap meat in Germany or France and watch it shrink to half size when you grill it(high water content....)