5 ms·

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, bus

by tribaal 12y ago

Because it's been on position 1 of best standard of living in the world pretty consistently, and Switzerland is geographically central, well interconnected, business-friendly, and not part of the EU? Just a guess :) EDIT: It seems Vienna is on top since 2010, my bad. But position 2 is not so bad, and the other points still stand :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Survey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Surve...

jahnu 12y ago
These rankings are really odd. They feel like they are only aimed at international business people who work around the world and take their families with them.
- nemanja 12y ago
  Your intuition is spot on - Mercer is one of the biggest HR/benefits consulting firms, and primary use cases of their surveys are to inform execs and provide a reference to HR when calculating cost of living comp adjustments when execs are relocating
pfortuny 12y ago
The NOT part of the EU is not to be considered lightly. It is possibly a great factor.
- Raphael 12y ago
  What's the advantage to being outside the EU?
  - pfortuny 12y ago
    Being free of a lot of oversized taxes, unnecessary legislation and the feeling of porwerlessness against a social chaste called "those at Brussels."
raverbashing 12y ago
It's also extremely expensive ;) But yeah, I know the city, and I agree with most of it. Also, yeah, not part of the EU (but in practice it's more of a "pick what you want" thing with the EU
- tribaal 12y ago
  Sure it's expensive, but if you live there your salary is indexed to that cost (especially if you work for google), so it's not like it's a problem in practice. Of course, if you're just visiting... ouch :)
  - evgen 12y ago
    Of if, like Google, you are the one paying those salaries indexed to cost of living. Then your employees become rather expensive...
    - tribaal 12y ago
      Well, it seems like Google salaries are very capable of sustaining a familly in Zurich: http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm And that's US salaries (the website only offers a free preview.. yada yada). I think Google generally thinks the cost of a talented enigineer is justified, and switching locations will of course represent a cost, but probably not such a big one in the great scheme of things.
      - saalweachter 12y ago
        It's quite possible there will be a relative loss of status. You might go from being -- say -- in the top decile or oven top few percentiles of income/wealth in Russia, to being in a middle decile in Zurich, even if you are quite comfortable or your absolute income or disposable income ends up being larger.
lentil_soup 12y ago
Those surveys are incredibly subjective and will vary person to person. There's not such thing as a "best" city for standard of living. When comparing cities I think it's best to use hard data and then compare them based on what's important to you personally. I usually use http://www.numbeo.com http://www.numbeo.com as a starting point for this.
- tribaal 12y ago
  Oh look! The site you linked to agrees with the study I linked to! Amazing! http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/city_result.jsp?country=Switzerland&city=Zurich http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/city_result.jsp?countr... (see that gauge? It's all the way to green!) EDIT: and here is their ranking. It's only number 4... http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp
  - lentil_soup 12y ago
    I don't think you got the "important to you personally" part of my post. Thanks for your condesending tone as well.
dantheman 12y ago
The #1 best standard of living metrics are highly flawed. Vienna ranks quite high, but ask people where they want to live and it's not Vienna or Zurich, it's larger cities like Paris/London/New York/Boston/Los Angeles/San Francisco/Tokyo/Hong Kong or it's smaller rural towns. The factors they focus on don't really reflect well on quality of life.
dantheman 12y ago
The #1 best standard of living metrics are highly flawed. Vienna ranks quite high, but ask people where they want to live and it's not Vienna or Zurich, it's larger cities like Paris/London/New York/Boston/Los Angeles/San Francisco/Tokyo/Hong Kong or it's smaller rural towns. The factors they focus on don't really reflect well on quality of life.

by tribaal 12y ago

jahnu 12y ago

These rankings are really odd. They feel like they are only aimed at international business people who work around the world and take their families with them.

nemanja 12y ago
Your intuition is spot on - Mercer is one of the biggest HR/benefits consulting firms, and primary use cases of their surveys are to inform execs and provide a reference to HR when calculating cost of living comp adjustments when execs are relocating

pfortuny 12y ago

The NOT part of the EU is not to be considered lightly. It is possibly a great factor.

Raphael 12y ago
What's the advantage to being outside the EU?
- pfortuny 12y ago
  Being free of a lot of oversized taxes, unnecessary legislation and the feeling of porwerlessness against a social chaste called "those at Brussels."

raverbashing 12y ago

It's also extremely expensive ;) But yeah, I know the city, and I agree with most of it. Also, yeah, not part of the EU (but in practice it's more of a "pick what you want" thing with the EU

tribaal 12y ago
Sure it's expensive, but if you live there your salary is indexed to that cost (especially if you work for google), so it's not like it's a problem in practice. Of course, if you're just visiting... ouch :)
- evgen 12y ago
  Of if, like Google, you are the one paying those salaries indexed to cost of living. Then your employees become rather expensive...
  - tribaal 12y ago
    Well, it seems like Google salaries are very capable of sustaining a familly in Zurich: http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm And that's US salaries (the website only offers a free preview.. yada yada). I think Google generally thinks the cost of a talented enigineer is justified, and switching locations will of course represent a cost, but probably not such a big one in the great scheme of things.
    - saalweachter 12y ago
      It's quite possible there will be a relative loss of status. You might go from being -- say -- in the top decile or oven top few percentiles of income/wealth in Russia, to being in a middle decile in Zurich, even if you are quite comfortable or your absolute income or disposable income ends up being larger.

lentil_soup 12y ago

Those surveys are incredibly subjective and will vary person to person. There's not such thing as a "best" city for standard of living. When comparing cities I think it's best to use hard data and then compare them based on what's important to you personally. I usually use http://www.numbeo.com http://www.numbeo.com as a starting point for this.

tribaal 12y ago
Oh look! The site you linked to agrees with the study I linked to! Amazing! http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/city_result.jsp?country=Switzerland&city=Zurich http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/city_result.jsp?countr... (see that gauge? It's all the way to green!) EDIT: and here is their ranking. It's only number 4... http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings.jsp
- lentil_soup 12y ago
  I don't think you got the "important to you personally" part of my post. Thanks for your condesending tone as well.

dantheman 12y ago

The #1 best standard of living metrics are highly flawed. Vienna ranks quite high, but ask people where they want to live and it's not Vienna or Zurich, it's larger cities like Paris/London/New York/Boston/Los Angeles/San Francisco/Tokyo/Hong Kong or it's smaller rural towns. The factors they focus on don't really reflect well on quality of life.

dantheman 12y ago