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> The Swiss model seems to be to think of the consequences of policies before putting them in place, the lower taxes seem to be more of a result of that. Outsi
by adev_ 6y ago
> The Swiss model seems to be to think of the consequences of policies before putting them in place, the lower taxes seem to be more of a result of that.
Outside of taxes, it is also a matter of political choices
The Swiss took the decision to develop the train as a first transport choice nationally... Even trucks transiting through Switzerland are loaded on trains.
And the result is there: They have a good network with a good service that unify the country.
That a strategy totally at the opposite of what USA and many European countries chose to do in the 90's: Close as many small train lines as possible and develop road transport.
- harha 6y agoI suspect the Swiss calculated that individual transportation doesn’t scale well. The US build ever bigger highways (I recall a summit at Stanford on clean energy in 2014 where some guy from McKinsey claimed that the solution to all problems is to increase highway throughout by having self driving cars closer to each other - never would it have occurred to him or anyone on the panel to replace cars with a train or bus) and Germany somehow tries to deal with their bad infrastructure choices after deciding to be car centric in favor of their car industry for many years. Edit: fun little note: I actually wanted to ask the McKinsey guy what his take on public transportation was, but wasn’t chosen for the q&a since I was sitting in the very back after I arrived late due to some issue on the Caltrain.