Here is your interesting Swiss fact of the day: There are approximately 700,000 cows in Switzerland, most of them dairy cows that live a long, productive --and pampered -- life. There are numerous laws that control the treatment of cows here. Barns must be built to allow the cows both movement inside and out, they cannot be confined to only hard, concrete flooring, their living quarters must be kept extremely clean and orderly, they must have devices installed whereby the cows can scratch, rub, and massage themselves, they must be able to get exercise each day, and to have nice views for their enjoyment and mental enrichment. The Swiss government subsidizes these cows by providing to their owners around 5 Swiss Francs each and every day, for every head of cattle they own, for their care and upkeep. That's 3.5 million Swiss Francs every day for all the cows in Switzerland! One billion two hundred and seventy seven point five million a year spent on Swiss cows. This doesn't include other forms of Swiss government support for their bovine loved ones. Another interesting fact is that in the last 100 years cows have almost doubled in size.  They are almost twice as big today as the average cow was in 1900!  I find that amazing.  Anyway, all together, each cow here costs the Swiss approximately 4,000 Swiss Francs a year, which equates to 2.8 billion. That's a lot of cabbage, or perhaps I should say 'hay', to be spending on good ol' Bessy! In comparison, however, they spend about 12,000 Francs a year to educate each Swiss child. Contrary to many myths, human children in Switzerland are still deemed more important than cows. Check out the video below.

YouTube - Swiss Cows live in better conditions than many humans

I've written a lot over the last 10 months about the abundance of rules in Switzerland. I guess all these rules, and laws, and restrictions, and regulations are well meant, and can certainly result in a lot of positive consequences for a society. When it comes down to it, though, I believe there are just too many rules in Switzerland, and, most importantly, they are enforced too rigidly and uncompromisingly. There are rules created for a human society to live by, to give structure and comfort and safety -- but in Switzerland --they do not allow for enough humanity. We have rules in America, too, lots of them. I freely admit this. Any society needs them of course, and sometimes they don't work well, sometimes they go horribly wrong -- but most of the time they do what they are supposed to. The difference with rules in America, though, is that we know why we have them, and we usually know when to relax them, or to bend them, to work around them, or to just sometimes -- for special reasons -- ignore them. The Swiss do not know how to do this, they cannot do this. They have rules simply for the sake of having rules. They live for their precious rules, but they do not let the rules allow them to live -- at least not like most cultures. This rigidity, in my opinion, lends itself to cultural stagnation, stultification. In some ways, at least socially, Switzerland is like a medieval village, cut off from the rest of civilization, blithely and smugly ignorant of the progress and changes that have happened in the greater world. I think that the Swiss' love of rules has really damaged their ability to innovate, to create, to imagine new ideas, concepts, technologies, and products. With the increase in inflexible rules that govern every micro-detail of their lives, they are becoming more and more staid, less flexible, less able to imagine different ways of doing things, and more convinced that the Swiss way is the only way.

This is not to say that the Swiss are not clever, or unable to absorb and utilize other countries technology, or well-educated; they are all these things, as well as being industrious and productive, and they are able to play the system very well here in the middle of Europe, surrounded on all sides by another, much more massive political and social entity. Of course, they have banking, which brings in massive amounts of money, and employs a sizable portion of the population in one way or another. They also have tourism, which they are very aware of and nurture and develop very enthusiastically, seeing as it represents another major sector of their overall economy. Then they have very favorable tax rates, both personal and corporate, compared to both the United States and the rest of Western Europe. Their sales tax is only 7.6%, just over half that of the rest of Europe's average of 15%, their average total individual payroll tax burden is only about 19%, and their average corporate tax rates are around 10-12%, one-fourth that of the United States --which is another major reason the U.S. is losing so many companies overseas. Because of all these reasons and more, their unemployment rate is around 4%, half that of the rest of Europe, and less than half that of the U.S. In some communities here, less than 1% of the available workforce is unemployed!

Another factor that could, combined with their willingness to adapt other culture's advances in technology and productivity, ultimately save Switzerland's long-term future is that of immigration. Switzerland's native population has been, is, and will continue, to shrink for the foreseeable future. I've referred many times in this Blog to the incredible abundance of old people in Switzerland, and they ain't having any kids! Neither are many of the younger people. Young people in the last generation, in all developed countries, have become more interested in pursuing their own goals and interests, as well as wanting to live a higher, kids-free, standard of living than their parents did, and Switzerland is no exception. Modern generations of people, living in modern countries, want to travel and see the world, pursue higher education and careers, enjoy all the sublime pleasures and opportunities of life -- very few want the responsibility, burden, and questionable benefits of having and raising children(not necessarily my viewpoint!). Cultural priorities have shifted, and being bombarded constantly with the message that the world is overpopulated, too polluted, and going through massive climate changes as a result of that overpopulation and pollution, is certainly not slowing this shift down. And as I've also said before, kids are expensive here!

Somewhere between 20-25% of the Swiss population is foreign born, and this statistic is only rising. During the recent economic crisis, the appeal of Switzerland as a place to emigrate has only increased. It was only in These foreign born immigrants have really begun to change things here in Switzerland. They are bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things, with mixed results. Crime and graffiti are on the rise, but the immigrants also bring more tax revenue to help maintain Switzerland's level of prosperity and social welfare mechanisms. They are also having children. Lots of them. It is not hard to extrapolate and imagine the changes that all of these immigrants and their children will have on the Swiss system.

More and more Swiss are also leaving the country, and only some of them come back. More than 10% of Swiss citizens live outside of the country, mostly though in bordering countries, not too far away. In 2002 the Swiss started opening their borders to "old" EU countries, with some restrictions. In 2007, they opened their borders to even the "new" EU countries, and lowered most of the restrictions; except the main one, that you have to have a job offer and acceptance from a company within Switzerland. No one can emigrate to Switzerland without first securing employment. That is a really good law, in my opinion. In 2009, they dropped the restrictions to Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavian countries. It will be interesting to watch the changes that this new openness to immigration will produce.