It's also very hard for a poorer or even middle class immigrant to move to a place like Switzerland because the cost of living is so high. This creates an environment of unanimity you wouldn't see in more diverse cultures like the U.S. or the U.K. I think that's largely why Switzerland and the Scandinavian states get accolades from U.S. politicians (not as much division.) But they don't seem to get that the cultures are no where near as diverse and thus the politics are not anywhere near as divisive.

That's not a criticism of diverse cultures, more of states living in relative unanimity being in a bubble.

Well, it's not like the swiss didn't have their fare share of ethnic issues in th past. Keep in mind that Switzerland is linguistically diverse.

The difference is that because of direct democracy and every male being armed to the teeth, the government steps in and tries to reduce inequality. That way democracy works again. I mean, Jura used to have straight up ethnic riots.

It's also not like your 'perfect' system wasn't financed by of the dirtiest money humanity has ever seen.

Switzerland should be compared with their closest money ~handling~ competitors : Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands.

>that's largely why Switzerland and the Scandinavian states get accolades from U.S. politicians (not as much division.)

I have to disagree with you. I have a lot of friends in Sweden that do nothing but complain about the immigration crisis they are facing. In fact one of my Swedish friends is here in the US now looking for a job because immigration has become such an issue in Sweden. She can name many immigrants she knows that are collecting more in welfare from the Swedish Government than what a Doctor makes... That's kinda fucked up if you ask me...

> She can name many immigrants she knows that are collecting more in welfare from the Swedish Government than what a Doctor makes...

Really? I have seen plenty of claims like that, and every time, they turn out to be false.

And how much exactly does a "doctor" make? Lönestatistik.se lists between 12k and 180k SEK/month. Quite a span.

So your friend can't get a job because... there are immigrants who are collecting more in welfare than doctors? Is that how welfare works now?

You've somehow managed to put the phrase "they're stealing both our jobs AND our welfare" unironically in the same sentence, kudos.

I don't disagree with you in terms of -now-, I mean historically. The Syrian refugee crisis has changed demographics in Europe in a way that I don't think we've yet seen the full ramifications of.

Oh we do, it's just you're called out as racist when you point it out.

See, that kind of comments don't contribute anything to the conversation.

All you're doing is portraying yourself as a victim and hijacking the issue back into the bullshit "are we too pc" debate again, which quite frankly most people are already sick of.

In Sweden: Swedish citizens really are the victims and their society has become too PC. It's not like here in the US.

If you hang a Swedish flag outside of your house you are automatically deemed a racist by your community. ANY semblance of pro-sweden is viewed as unfair by the immigrant community because they aren't swedish, because they aren't included. They've create a culture of everyone is a victim, citizens and immigrants.

It's really a fucked up situation. A situation I hope never comes to the US.

I remember listening to a Ted talk where the speaker basically said, Get income inequality in check by whatever means and most of your problems go away.

Get hold of a copy of Tony Judt's Ill fares the land. It has references to the correlation between inequality and many measures of 'problems' and tries to make the case for a causal link. Also explains philosophical background.

Thank you for the recommendation. I will check it out.

>get income inequality in check by whatever means and most of your problems go away.

Is that a cause or an effect though? As in, if your society evolved in such that "most problems" don't exist or aren't serious, then maybe as a consequence there isn't a lot of income disparity. But that doesn't necessarily hold in reverse. Making incomes equal by some method doesn't necessarily make the problems go away.

https://philoofalexandria.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/reynolds-...

Certainly large amounts of some kind of equality is needed for a democracy to work.

Barely!

The point in discussion, everyone likes equality in a way they having it, without they having to do anything about it. Or in other words making the rich poor in some way. Wasn't this what communism was all about.

The real issue is equality in access to basic resources, which is by and large there already. Beyond this you need to let people win and lose on merit.

You don't go around paying the same money for a haircut and brain surgery. That sort of equality doesn't work. Or to be more precise that's inequality of a very worst kind.

> The UK is a much more divided society than Switzerland, in terms of the base level of income and education. The median income in Switzerland is double that of the UK

There's also the population size difference. London alone is larger than Switzerland, and that's not even all of England, let alone the whole UK.