Projects show that about 55 percent of Swiss voters have rejected a proposed population cap of 10 million for a mountainous territory that currently has 5X the population density of the U.S. Lower 48.
The population of Switzerland has doubled within the lifetimes of its older citizens:
Only about 5 percent of Switzerland is reasonably flat buildable land. The Swiss are already crammed in like rats by U.S. standards, about 500 square feet per person vs. 750 here. There is a term in medicine for growth without regard to available resources: “cancer”.
(ChatGPT says an American who has wisely chosen to refrain from work and lives in taxpayer-funded public housing may have a higher material standard of living than a median Swiss as measured by (a) square footage per person, (b) air conditioning (only 5% of Swiss have it), and (c) car ownership. While the American who hasn’t worked for four generations cruises around in his/her/zir/their air-conditioned Nissan Altima, the working Swiss is provisioned with a public transit bus that may not have A/C or that has only feeble A/C. ChatGPT and Grok agree that Switzerland has 1/10th the murder rate of the U.S., though that advantage falls when Switzerland is compared to the “more racially homogeneous (often White) areas” U.S. states, such as New Hampshire and Maine. Grok specifically wrote “more racially homogeneous (often White) areas tend to have lower crime than heterogeneous ones” so I asked “Does that mean diversity is not our strength?” and the answer was “No”. ChatGPT agrees that the correlation between racial homogeneity and crime is accurate and that, similarly, we cannot abandon the axiom “diversity is our strength”.)
It will be interesting if we can get some demographics on those who voted yes vs. no to the cap. U.S. immigration is mostly low-skill and benefits the elite at the expense of the American working class (Harvard study), hence the tendency of the working class to vote for politicians, such as Donald Trump, who promise to limit immigration. Switzerland has a much higher percentage of high-skill immigrants, with at least 60 percent holding at least a bachelor’s degree (compare to 36 percent of U.S. immigrants). So a Swiss with a white collar job could cast a self-interested vote against mass importation of humans.
Here’s ChatGPT’s summary of where each country gets its foreign residents (in the U.S., nearly all are “immigrants”, entitled to stay here forever; in Switzerland, nearly all are expected to go home eventually). Switzerland pulls its foreigners primarily from fully developed European countries, such as Italy, Germany, Portugal, and France.. The U.S. has chosen to bring in foreigners primarily from Mexico, India, China, Philippines, Cuba, etc.
In the coming Age of AI and Robotics, what’s the scenario in which existing Swiss citizens become better off because someone who isn’t in the top 10% of human intelligence/skill has immigrated?
Separately, it’s interesting that the Wall Street Journal, published in a country with 1/5th the current population density of Switzerland, describes the idea of limiting population density as “radical” (source):
Your blog is a smorgasbord of ideas for New Americans like me and my four wives (ages 8, 9, and two at 11), all of whom I purchased in Kabul last year. A couple weeks ago, one of your blog posts helpfully suggested we might find great opportunity on cruise ships. Now, having read today’s informative post, I am wondering if perhaps Switzerland is a better option for us, given their clear objective of adding New Switzerlanders. Particularly apropos as I purchase additional child wives over the next year in Mogadishu and Karachi. We have one question for you as we consider our many options: will the Switzerlanders be as welcoming to our traditions of child rape as the good Americans have been?
@Muhammad, Where are you from? Clearly, you are well educated, well informed, and prosperous enough to support your many wives, all while absorbing the wisdom of Philip’s blog.
Am I correct in assuming that you are funding this impressive family enterprise with welfare benefits? If so, I must commend your financial management skills. One piece of advice: I would not migrate to Switzerland. Their immigration and welfare policies are far stricter than those in the USA where, as we are often reminded, no human is illegal (including, your many wives).
Also, my condolences that our current evil and heartless president is making life more difficult for folks like you. If you are not already living in a deep-blue state, I would recommend relocating to one. As Philip has demonstrated many times, you and your many wives will be welcomed with open arms and shielded from the harsh realities of federal policy.
A piece of advice from me to you, though you probably already know this. With that many wives, it is logical that there will be many children, which means you are sitting on a gold mine. Raise the boys to enrich the West with your wisdom, and the girls sell them or demand a high dowry. Between government programs, and consulting opportunities, your family empire should be generating revenue streams that would make a venture capitalist jealous. Who knows, you might someday even eclipse Elon!
May Allah protect you and your many wives.
George A.,
Such a thoughtful and helpful missive that you have added to this smorgasbord of wisdom!
We hail from the city of Los Angeles, home of the inimitable mayor and Citizen Fire Fighter Karen Bass. I am told by my neighbors that this is the City of Angels, but Angels is a concept we find anathema, being that we practice the tradition of child rape.
We have thankfully not had any interaction with the the president you reference. My neighbors all call him a pedophile and Nazi, but I limit my discussions about the Orange Man lest my neighbors learn about my own traditions! Another contributor on this blog yesterday said it well: “different strokes fo different fokes.” It’s all about Diversity, right?
I liked your discussion about Enriching the West: that is something I think about every day. Respectfully, should we just limit this “Enrichment” to the West? Perhaps we should aspire to grander ambitions? Picking up on your reference to Elon Musk, perhaps we should think about Mars and beyond now that we are interplanetary?
What a special day, no? All thanks to Allah!
Little typo there on the murder rate comparison…
Fixed! Let’s hope that my Swiss chocolate supply doesn’t get cut off for the crime of inverting the ratio.
There is always Belgian Chocolate as a back-up!
I don’t have data on the demographics of the Ja/Nein voters but the initiative was rejected by voters in the cities and the French part of the country while the conservative rural cantons voted for it.
Leonidas is okay, but I am loyal to Lindt and Cailler (owned by Nestlé now).
Philip, 8 year back you were a Hershey fan. Somehow you fell under foreign influences.
perplexed: You might have to send me a link to this. I don’t remember thinking or writing that Hershey’s chocolate was competitive with Lindt or any Swiss-made Nestle-owned product (including Nestle brand, which in Switzerland is very different from what they sell here). I’ve been loyal to Lindt since a bar cost 99 cents at Rodman’s Drug in NW D.C. That was 1978. Because the U.S. currency has been managed wisely by qualified experts, the same bar is available today for $7. https://www.lindtusa.com/extra-creamy-milk-chocolate-excellence-bar-391144
(One sad thing is that the Lindt Cognac bars aren’t imported officially anymore. They were illegal in Maryland, I think, but I would get them in Crystal City, Virginia. Later I would get them at the Wine & Cheese Cask in Somerville, MA (still there; impossible for a liquor store to go out of business in Massachusetts due to restrictions on licensing). I wouldn’t drink cognac in a glass, but I like the bars. ChatGPT: “Lindt’s official answer is essentially: U.S. alcohol rules make it not worth importing. Lindt USA says that “due to the current federal and state regulations,” it does not import any liqueur-filled products into the USA.The cognac bar is not merely “cognac-flavored.” Listings for the imported bar show actual Cognac as an ingredient, sometimes around 8% of the bar, and it is sold as a liquor-filled chocolate. That puts it into a messy U.S. category: food plus beverage alcohol. TTB guidance says alcohol-containing food formulas may be treated as nonbeverage products only under specific conditions, and federal approval does not override state law. So the likely business reason is the classic U.S. alcohol-distribution headache: Lindt would have to deal with age restrictions, state-by-state legality, labeling, taxes, and perhaps liquor-license/distributor channels rather than normal grocery/candy logistics. Some states and localities treat liqueur-filled candy over about 0.5% alcohol as alcohol or restrict sales to people 21+ or licensed sellers. You can still find bars from specialty importers or eBay-style sellers, but those are not the same as Lindt USA officially importing and distributing them nationwide. The shortest fair answer is: not because Americans disliked them; because real-alcohol chocolates are a regulatory and distribution nuisance in the U.S.”)
The cognac-filled bars that I used to buy for $2-3 are now $30 each plus $24 shipping from Poland. https://www.ebay.com/itm/157595475868
Maybe https://germandelistore.com/sweets/chocolate-bars/2640/lindt-premium-chocolade-cognac-brandy-filled-chocolate-bar-100g would ship them to the U.S. I don’t know if they’d survive a trip to Florida in the summer, though. Maybe I’ll try right now… Hmm… it is about $50 to ship DHL. Would U.S. customs confiscate them? I know that the U.S. let tens of millions of people walk across the border and then get set up on welfare, but that at the same time a friend who ordered some furniture from China was plunged into a customs nightmare and the invasive furniture was held by our wise federal government.
The same store sells the wildly illegal Kinder Surprise eggs: https://germandelistore.com/sweets/other-chocolate/1070/ferrero-kinder-ueberraschungsei-surprise-egg-1-pcs?c=0
(Americans are too stupid not to eat the entire massive egg, thus poisoning themselves with plastic, and therefore this dangerous product cannot be brought into the U.S. A gun from Switzerland or Germany is just fine, though.)
That same store sells Katjes. Katjes used to make amazing gummi citrus slices and Cardullo’s in Harvard Square sold them. I can’t find any evidence of these at this store or anywhere else on the web. Sad if they were crushed by Haribo. They do have Tropifruit (Tropifrutti) from Haribo. So all is not lost. https://germandelistore.com/sweets/gummi-candy/4/haribo-tropifrutti-tropical-fruit-gums-175g (these aren’t imported to the U.S. officially, but they’re not that hard to find; the retailer says “”Haribo Tropifrutti” is ranked Nr. 3 in Germanys Top 20 most favorite Haribos.”)
You strike me more like a Läderach type of guy than Lindt and Cailler.
Läderach is for the nouveau riche. They’re literally arrivistes, having been founded in 1962. Cailler was founded in 1819. Lindt & Sprüngli goes back to 1836 and they invented the modern chocolate bar (made via conching). What’s great about Läderach other than they have a store in the Palm Beach Gardens mall, which is the closest mall to our house?
(I do like the Teuscher Champagne truffles. Teuscher was founded in 1932. A rich girl at MIT used to receive these in the mail from her dad, a Canadian entrepreneur who didn’t want to pay his fair share in tax to the Trudeau Royal Family and fled to Monaco, and would share with me. Her dad was a little confused about college life circa 1980. He sent his beloved daughter a full-length racoon fur coat. She used it as a bedspread because she didn’t feel comfortable wearing it to class.)
Only the Italian part of the country voted in favor. It is explained as a reaction to “wage dumping” – cheap labor coming from Italy and driving down wages.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/comments/wz4uup/are_other_swiss_people_aware_of_how_badly_things/
What would Wilhelm Tell say? He was shooting foreigners (and apples) for nothing.