Microblog Memes

The one thing that going to a real casino taught me is that, despite what Hollywood would have us believe, casinos are not full of impeccably dressed classy people, but very old retirees that look like they only have a few years left to live, and disheveled men who look less well dressed than me in my PJs at home, who are gambling away large sums of money in a fit of anxiety and addiction.

Really depressing crap.

That makes me think of the chinese guys that took cash from the bank they worked at to buy lottery tickets. The idea was to use the winnings to pay back the money and keep the rest.

They got lucky and it worked the first time. Then they decided to try again and lost.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Bank_of_China_robbery

Just 10 or 12 years ago or so, the US and EU had comparably sized economies. Today the EU economy is between 25% to 30% smaller than the US one. And yes, I include the UK in the EU calculations just to prove the point. The reason? Higher stability and growth on average. What might seem like small differences on a year-on-year basis add up and prove to be quite substantial in terms of decades.

So you can invest in Swedish and Swiss bonds and/or companies if you want, but chances are you're gonna lose out compared to person investing in US-based entities.

Sincerely,

An EU citizens who is sick of hearing Americans bashing their own country based on ignorance. There's plenty of reasons to be upset with and critical of the US. But an unstable economy is not one of them, relatively speaking. Get your facts straight.

Politically, maybe, but economically, the US remains a major powerhouse, and if nothing else, that might be the sole factor that makes them try to keep things stable.

It's one of the few things much of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy tend to both want, particularly for those who have a decent amount of wealth tied up in the American market, and a fair amount of money might be spent to that end.

Oh wow tell me more about Sweeeden. What knowledge do you have that makes you think that tiny economy is more stable than the US economy?

But a lot of european countries are pushing pretty hard to not borrow and have a zero balance or positive budget. So e.g. Switzerland don't sell that many bonds and yield on a lot of them is 0.5%, maybe 2% on long term ones vs around 4% for US ones.

That article brushes over many things, like some of the big contributors to the economy being straight up amoral organisations that will do anything for money.

Nestlé, facing constant boycotts for things like the formula scandals, their damage to the rainforests, and so much more.

Big pharma running what you could call price rackets.

Banking sector which will happily take money from arms dealers and the like and turn a blind eye to that.

That all gets you a very profitable economy, sure, but not all is rosy.

Then you go to Geneva and somehow, despite all that sweet tax money, you still have buses from the 1980s and public buildings that haven't seen a renovation in the last 60 years. The airport terminal is straight up run down if you compare it to European airports like Heathrow, Barajas, Schiphol...

Then people struggle with the cost of housing - median salary is around 6k CHF (monthly), with 2k of deductions that give you a 4k net. According to rentola.ch, the rental for a 1-bedroom flat in Geneva costs on average 3.2k CHF a month, meaning you need about 3x the median salary (!!) to be able to afford a 1-bedroom flat within the recommended 30% of your salary. Working hours are longer than the neighboring countries.

So yeah, they have a great economy because the numbers are skewed by many-million-francs salaries of the corporations in there. If you're not in a C-suite or visiting as a Sheikh wanting to spend a few millions in Geneva, quality of life is absolutely nothing to write home about.

Yeah no, that's not how information literacy works. An article on usnews.com proclaiming Switzerland as the best country in the world based on self-reporting is the opposite of objective. Making an international economics-based comparison takes more than a quick google search. And keep in mind some people actually live in unstable economies. So stop bashing your country for the sake of it.

Sincerely, An EU citizen who has lived in Switzerland and visited the US on numerous occasions.

Wait what, Federer is still playing?

And the article didn't even mention the why behind the political stability, low corruption and respectfulness; the half-direct democracy: though not without faults (too influencable through media upheavals), even the 7 presidents are "just doing a special job" and can take public transport.