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>People tell me the reasons that everything is more expensive than in Switzerland US is cheaper than Switzerland for pretty much any product. If you are talkin

>People tell me the reasons that everything is more expensive than in Switzerland US is cheaper than Switzerland for pretty much any product. If you are talking about train service, then the reason for that is because US (and Canada) prioritize freight traffic. Freight traffic is much more efficient in North America than in Europe [1] and unfortunately (or fortunately) is prioritized over passenger traffic. Honestly, I think America made the better decision. [1]https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-is-europe-so-absurdly-backward-compared-to-the-u-s-in-rail-freight-transport https://www.freightwaves.com/news/why-is-europe-so-absurdly-... "European railways had no incentive to take risks to re-engineer and spend billions of euros to increase clearances and rework tunnel heights for double-stacked railcars, because the European railway business model was about moving passengers and not freight – the opposite of how North America dealt with its railroad system. "

ubanholzer 6y ago
Switzerland moved 40% of all freight traffic kilometerd to the rails too, which is really a lot. (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/10547450/master https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/10547450/maste...)
- macspoofing 6y ago
  You're going to have to provide some context. I don't know what you're trying to argue.
  - Symbiote 6y ago
    A 40% share of tonne-km by rail in Switzerland is similar to the figure for the USA. It's other European countries that have too much road freight. Note that ships are much more used in Europe. https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828 https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828
  - ubanholzer 6y ago
    Just wanted to clarify that this is not valid for the whole continent and it would work for western europe to move the traffic on rails.
- throw0101a 6y ago
  The passenger modal share for rail in CH is 21%: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Passenger_modal_share_for_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... For the US it is 0.3%. Given that CH is land-locked, it's not surprising that freight modal share is 46%, because it has to get inland from a port in some way: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Freight_modal_share_for_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... This is higher than the US, but give that 127M Americans (40%) live in counties that are on the coast, it's probably not too hard to get things to them: * https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html * https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-infographic.html https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-i... Heck, Los Angeles county has a population (10M) larger than CH (8.5M), and would be the 10th largest state (between NC and MI): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories... So a good number of Americans can get goods pretty direct without long distance inland shipping.
  - asdff 6y ago
    Not everyone living along a coast has an appropriate coast to establish a harbor sufficient for shipping. If you live in big sur you still get your crap from china delivered inland from the port of Los Angeles.
    - throw0101a 6y ago
      Where did I say that it was necessary? In the US there are lots of major ports all along the coast, which is where most of the population is. For the Pacific: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_Ocean_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_... And from any of those it's probably not that far to any major population centre. Compare to Switzerland, which has precisely zero ports, and so of course needs rail (and trucks) to get things delivered.
      - dafrie 6y ago
joejohnson 6y ago
The US is certainly not cheaper for two products that everyone has to buy: healthcare and housing. Switzerland is significantly more affordable than the US because the price of these two goods (which are human rights) are regulated.
- himlion 6y ago
  Housing in Switzerland is more expensive than the US if you exclude LA, SF and NY.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

ubanholzer 6y ago

Switzerland moved 40% of all freight traffic kilometerd to the rails too, which is really a lot. (https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/10547450/master https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/10547450/maste...)

macspoofing 6y ago
You're going to have to provide some context. I don't know what you're trying to argue.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  A 40% share of tonne-km by rail in Switzerland is similar to the figure for the USA. It's other European countries that have too much road freight. Note that ships are much more used in Europe. https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828 https://transportgeography.org/?page_id=1828
- ubanholzer 6y ago
  Just wanted to clarify that this is not valid for the whole continent and it would work for western europe to move the traffic on rails.
throw0101a 6y ago
The passenger modal share for rail in CH is 21%: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Passenger_modal_share_for_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... For the US it is 0.3%. Given that CH is land-locked, it's not surprising that freight modal share is 46%, because it has to get inland from a port in some way: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Freight_modal_share_for_rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag... This is higher than the US, but give that 127M Americans (40%) live in counties that are on the coast, it's probably not too hard to get things to them: * https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html * https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-infographic.html https://www.livescience.com/18997-population-coastal-areas-i... Heck, Los Angeles county has a population (10M) larger than CH (8.5M), and would be the 10th largest state (between NC and MI): * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories... So a good number of Americans can get goods pretty direct without long distance inland shipping.
- asdff 6y ago
  Not everyone living along a coast has an appropriate coast to establish a harbor sufficient for shipping. If you live in big sur you still get your crap from china delivered inland from the port of Los Angeles.
  - throw0101a 6y ago
    Where did I say that it was necessary? In the US there are lots of major ports all along the coast, which is where most of the population is. For the Pacific: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_Ocean_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Panamax_ports#Pacific_... And from any of those it's probably not that far to any major population centre. Compare to Switzerland, which has precisely zero ports, and so of course needs rail (and trucks) to get things delivered.
    - dafrie 6y ago

joejohnson 6y ago

The US is certainly not cheaper for two products that everyone has to buy: healthcare and housing. Switzerland is significantly more affordable than the US because the price of these two goods (which are human rights) are regulated.

himlion 6y ago
Housing in Switzerland is more expensive than the US if you exclude LA, SF and NY.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]