having Switzerland as a legal residence - having earned it after some very long, hard years of full-time work, 13 of them in-country.
I am now officially retired, but also teach as an adjunct professor at a private university there and occasionally consult to supplement my retirement income, which includes US Social Security, the greatest US program to be enacted, IMO. I am thus not a "charge" to their welfare system, but all Swiss residents benefit from excellent education, health and transportation systems. My local commune even has two events annually specifically to "honor" its senior citizens: one is a four-course holiday dinner (including aperitifs and wines) in December and the other is an outing in late summer, also featuring gourmet cuisine and wines. There are many other perks.
The quality of life is excellent; the economy is doing well; and Switzerland has likely accepted more immigrants proportional to its population from areas of conflict than has the US.
When a storm or other emergency knocks out power, we do not have to wait days for power to be restored as the vast majority of electric lines are buried underground. The Alpine tunnels and highways are marvels of architectural engineering, just as they are throughout all of mountainous Western Europe.
I would love for the US to embrace some of the same attitude - that we are ALL citizens together, that the type of "socialism" embraced by Europe is in fact a major plus, that it certainly does not destroy incentive or creativity (Europeans in general and Swiss in particular are developing new things at least as fast as we are and in some cases faster), but that it does help to ensure that the most vulnerable are not homeless or not cared for when they are sick and that there is some sort of safety net when bad things happen - as they certainly can to us all.
I love the US, but I hate the divisiveness, nastiness, pettiness and selfishness that characterize too many of those who dominate our politics and media - who I refuse to believe truly represent the majority of Americans - and I specifically hate the RW religious zealots who are allowed to set too much of the US political agenda.
European systems are not perfect. But over the years, they have learned from our mistakes. When we began as a nation, we were attempting to learn from theirs. Now it's time to realize that learning goes both ways.
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