I am glad that common sense rules more here - people don't live in constant fear and paranoia about everything. Take bringing up kids, for instance. The kids are (*gasped*) expected to get themselves to school and are allowed to be outside without a parent tethered to them. This adds immensely to my quality of life
I also like that they get taught common sense things in school - for instance, today my 3rd grader had her first test by the police on bike riding rules, etc. I don't think they do things like that in the US, but I could be wrong. I also really love how the school has swimming included...would prefer full-day schooling, but you can't have it all!
As many people have said- with beautiful mountains and lakes all around-it seems like living in a picture postcard, high quality of life, clean, safe etc etc. 8+ years of living here has been a gift and I consider myself among lucky ones to experience it and am thankful for that.
As many people (both local and foreigners) have alluded to during watercooler conversations, the trick is to keep it going as some constituents who play a key role in the economy aka top management who run large MNCs have completely lost the plot. Cost cutting, productivity and restructuring are the new heroin, cocaine and esctasy. All is permissible in the name of slash and burn as long as it doesn't impact their fat salaries. A friend of mine who works at a big pharma campus in Basel (you know which one it is) rues the fact that huge multimillion francs spent on campus are now being offset by extensive layoffs of talented people, architectural tours of the campus at weekends and renting out valuable meeting and conference spaces to external associations. It looks like somewhere down the line everyone forgot why they came into the business and what their business is in the first place.
Sorry to sound off as bit of a rant but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing as long as we know how to keep it as such.
Two key things coming from an American perspective:
1. Financial security. We have more breathing room on one salary here than we had on two salaries in the States. We still don't live like kings, but we can do the things we like to do without feeling guilty or worried. The unemployment safety net (although we probably will never need it) also eases the mind.
2. Overall quality of life/family time. In the States the line between work and home life is often blurry. People are so freaked out about losing their jobs that work duties and worries come home. Vacation allowance is pathetic, and most people are scared to take vacation for fear they are labeled as lazy. In CH, once those 45ish hours are up for the week our life is ours . Vacation allowance is sufficient to get away and recharge the batteries, and employees are encouraged to take vacay.
Granted that obviously isn't too good for you yet I read an article recently that organic food isn't any healthier for you and only 30% of it may contain less pesticides etc. I merely wanted to know how people were quantifying quality
Well, the chocolate is made with real cocoa, not some diluted-down extract that requires artificial cocoa flavour so you think its chocolate. Likewise, the milk comes out of a cow, not out of some chemical processing plant that takes all the components out and puts them back together in a different configuration. The bread actually smells of bread which is why they can wrap it in paper rather than that special plastic that is designed to emit the smell of freshly baked bread. Chickens are free range and don't live in batteries where they never get daylight. Ultimately, that's why these things taste better. Or if you don't call it better then at least they taste different.
The chocolate made here isn't confined to Switzerland alone is it? as in it gets exported to other countries. I see what you're saying about chicken but such chicken is also available in other countries too. My point was merely one to dispel an illusion that just because a food is native to a country that doesn't mean it only exists there and also that if the reason was because it is organic that it is proven that it is not healthier and has no additional benefits.