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How can it be that Switzerland has free education, a mandatory health care system and still have a much lower government spending/GDP than the USA?

by xorfish 10y ago

mi100hael 10y ago
A population less than 3% the size of the US, a GDP per capita 50% higher than the US, and a physical size of about 0.5% of the US. Switzerland has about the same physical area and population as the state of Virginia, only it's about 50% richer by raw GDP. Not exactly a good analog for the entire US.
- xorfish 10y ago
  > A population less than 3% the size of the US How does that affect government spending/GDP? > a GDP per capita 50% higher than the US Purchasing power is similar. This means the higher GDP per capita is compensated by higher spending on government employees, social welfare (A person without a job or children gets around 2800CHF/months) and so on. > a physical size of about 0.5% of the US. How does that affect government spending/GDP? The only thing I see here is potentialy lower cost for infrastructure. But then the alps that take up 60% of the land area and building tunnels is expensive.
  - mi100hael 10y ago
    It's a matter of logistics and scale. A small, homogeneous population is far easier to manage than an expansive, diverse one. Switzerland doing it is roughly equivalent to one state in the US doing it. The staff required to support such an operation is reasonable. Probably one central office employing a few dozen people to manage accounts, provide support, and oversee a modest number of nearby service providers. Contrast that with a federal program and all of a sudden you have dozens of offices across the entire country. You have to add another layer of management to oversee those offices and ensure they are adhering to the same standards. Rolling out even a minor change requires re-training hundreds if not more staff. You've taken what was a relatively lean operation and turned it into a bureaucracy of the largest scale. And now it's a target for fraud because they're handing out free money and inevitably poorly investigate abuses at a snail's pace.
    - xorfish 10y ago
      So, why has the USA a lower general government spending than Luxemburg or Belgium? You can't predict the general governemnt spending based on the size, population and PPP/capita. The fact remains, Switzerland has an extended welfare state, cheap education and still lower general government spending than the US. But well, maybe it is also because the Swiss people have greater power over the government than any other country.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

How can it be that Switzerland has free education, a mandatory health care system and still have a much lower government spending/GDP than the USA?

by xorfish 10y ago

How can it be that Switzerland has free education, a mandatory health care system and still have a much lower government spending/GDP than the USA?

mi100hael 10y ago

A population less than 3% the size of the US, a GDP per capita 50% higher than the US, and a physical size of about 0.5% of the US. Switzerland has about the same physical area and population as the state of Virginia, only it's about 50% richer by raw GDP. Not exactly a good analog for the entire US.

xorfish 10y ago
> A population less than 3% the size of the US How does that affect government spending/GDP? > a GDP per capita 50% higher than the US Purchasing power is similar. This means the higher GDP per capita is compensated by higher spending on government employees, social welfare (A person without a job or children gets around 2800CHF/months) and so on. > a physical size of about 0.5% of the US. How does that affect government spending/GDP? The only thing I see here is potentialy lower cost for infrastructure. But then the alps that take up 60% of the land area and building tunnels is expensive.
- mi100hael 10y ago
  It's a matter of logistics and scale. A small, homogeneous population is far easier to manage than an expansive, diverse one. Switzerland doing it is roughly equivalent to one state in the US doing it. The staff required to support such an operation is reasonable. Probably one central office employing a few dozen people to manage accounts, provide support, and oversee a modest number of nearby service providers. Contrast that with a federal program and all of a sudden you have dozens of offices across the entire country. You have to add another layer of management to oversee those offices and ensure they are adhering to the same standards. Rolling out even a minor change requires re-training hundreds if not more staff. You've taken what was a relatively lean operation and turned it into a bureaucracy of the largest scale. And now it's a target for fraud because they're handing out free money and inevitably poorly investigate abuses at a snail's pace.
  - xorfish 10y ago
    So, why has the USA a lower general government spending than Luxemburg or Belgium? You can't predict the general governemnt spending based on the size, population and PPP/capita. The fact remains, Switzerland has an extended welfare state, cheap education and still lower general government spending than the US. But well, maybe it is also because the Swiss people have greater power over the government than any other country.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]