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Switzerland didn't change it's boarders since 1800. Is this the main reason why they are the richest (or one of the richest) countries?
by matesz 5y ago
Switzerland didn't change it's boarders since 1800. Is this the main reason why they are the richest (or one of the richest) countries?
- h4kor 5y agoBeing able to easily defend your territory and not participating in wars probably helps to build and maintain capital
- algo_cheese 5y agoAround 1800 Switzerland was invaded by French armies so it's not really true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_in_the_Napoleonic_era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland_in_the_Napoleonic_...
- eCa 5y agoYes, but that is almost a quarter of a millennium ago.
- julienreszka 5y agoNo I don't think so. Counterexample: Germany changed its borders all the time, still powerful and wealthy tho.
- Mordisquitos 5y agoPlus another counterexample from the opposite side: Andorra hasn't changed its borders since 1278, but only became reasonably rich in the second half of the 20th century.
- Glavnokoman 5y agoIt is like 3 times less wealthy per capita compared to Switzerland. So this is rather a co-example.
- julienreszka 5y agoGermany is 10 times the population of Switzerland
- Glavnokoman 5y agoAnd? Is India a rich country?
- julienreszka 5y agoThat's exactly my point. It's very difficult to scale wealth. Still Germany is very wealthy for it's size.
- pydry 5y agoPartly. Its mountains form a natural border and it is rich partly because it is treated as a haven for stability.
- bumbada 5y agoI don't think so. I have worked in the Germanic side of Switzerland before the pandemic and will go back after it. IMO the main reason is that Switzerland has no natural resources so for this reason it was not invaded. You go to Africa and see the same thing, the less resources a country has, the wealthier it is. Then you have Jews and protestant ethics in half the country that value work a lot. They welcome and support you if you are a good worker. Then you have cold Winters that develop indoor activities like reading or workshops. They used to sleep half of the year. But the most important thing of all, they don't have socialist or communist in power. It is a great thing that I can not vote, because the majority of workers that go there to work are leftist and will destroy the country in a few years if they could vote. Imagine that you take the better workers, teachers, and entrepreneurs in a country and exterminate them. That is what happened in Russia and China with the communist revolutions. The most lazy and envious, aggressive and worst workers became the bosses. That made people in those countries to literarily starve to death from incompetence and population to go down(Russia population was bigger than US of A at the start of the century). But most important, it was an inverse natural selection. The brightest and resourceful people disappeared from the genetic pool. And the culture destroyed excellence and hard work as a merit. In Switzerland, merit culture not only survives but prospers, because without natural resources, they don't have alternatives.
- Glavnokoman 5y agoPlus neutrality which it tries to sustain as much as its sovereignty allows.