Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers

Re:Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers by saiya-jin on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @10:59AM (#21259112)

You obviously never lived in Switzerland. Can't explain all the US-CH differences in few words, but some benefits: better healthcare, better social system, much much safer, actually working public school system, great clean nature on your doorstep, I can be in 2 minutes of drive in beautiful France and 1 hour drive in Italy and rest of Europe is just around the corner. Very health and sport-oriented mentality. Super strong middle class which creates much healthier long term society. Much better (and healthier!) food, population that has most voting power in the world and actually votes sanely. You can have all the guns you can have in US too :) And so on and on and on...

Oh, and your tax dollars don't support wars making the world a significantly worse place with all the rest of evil attached, if you care about such things.

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Re:Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers by asdfman123 on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @12:28PM (#21260304)

> Oh, and your tax dollars don't support wars making the world a significantly worse place with all the rest of evil attached, if you care about such things.

I'm not trying to sound defensive here, but in a global world there has to be a superpower or two playing the role of a superpower. And if you like Western democratic ideals, it's a good thing that they're aligned with those.

The whole world is living in the relatively peaceful and prosperous structure of alliances that were established after WWII, and I personally wouldn't want to see those disappear. Maybe if you live in China, Russia, Brazil, or the Middle East, or you have a different value system than I do, you might disagree.

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Re:Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers by bwanab on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @12:33PM (#21260346)

As an American who lived in Switzerland for a couple of years, I agree with all these points. If I could have, I would have stayed there.

Edit add: On the other hand, at least when I was there, the wages weren't comparable to US wages for similar work and management attitudes about software developers tended to border on considering them glorified typists.

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Re:Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers by dmode on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @07:01PM (#21264959)

Not sure why you are getting downvoted. But Switzerland is a stunning country, with snow capped mountains and lush green hills everywhere. And unbelievable public transit and train system. I don't think anywhere in the US is comparable. Even in Colorado and Sierras you have to drive down treacherous roads with mad traffic. In Switzerland, you just relax in a train as it takes you to 12K feet elevation

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Re:Switzerland vs Silicon Valley for Software Developers by SlowRobotAhead on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @12:41PM (#21260478)

I don’t agree or disagree with any specific points.

I just think it’s funny you are 1:1 comparing a country twice the size of, with the same population of New Jersey, with its single city over 250k... to the entirety of the United States.

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