Originally posted on July 18, 2016. Researchers studying the effects of wealth taxation in Switzerland have found that, rather than quelling inequality, the taxes are costly to the economy and generate little revenue with respect to their negative impacts. The Tax Foundation’s Alex Durante writes: Many countries in the OECD impose estate or inheritance taxes, […]
The Swiss Way
I have written in the past of the Swiss Confederation and its weak central government form (the presidency is a ceremonial office and rotates). The office has no powers above the other six members of the Swiss Federal Council. The entire Federal Council is considered a collective head of state. Switzerland is a neutral country with a low crime rate and a powerful national defense system. Instead of fielding a large standing army, Switzerland requires every man to undergo military training for a few days or weeks a year throughout most of his life. Each man is required to keep his assigned automatic rifle at home at the ready. The Swiss are powerful believers in individual liberty and freedom. They believe that there is no need for a higher legal authority to check people’s initiatives. In fact, federal court in Switzerland is not allowed to rule on any constitutional matter at the national level. The Swiss are all about keeping things at the cantonal level. Keep it local is the key in Switzerland.
There is a lot to learn for Americans from “the Swiss way.” Switzerland’s model is precisely the weak form of central government intended by our Founders. The best outline of what a constitutionally strong form of federal republic looks like is Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined. The chapter on “Empire” alone will amaze you. -- Dick Young
Swiss Ban Burqa-Like, Face Covering Veils
In The Wall Street Journal, Brian Blackstone reports that voters in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen have elected to ban burqa-like face coverings from public spaces. He writes (abridged): Voters in northeast Switzerland voted Sunday to ban burqa-like, face-covering veils in public. St. Gallen joined Ticino, in the southern, Italian-speaking part of the country, in […]
How Tiny Switzerland Faced Down Hitler and The Nazis: Part II
“The full extent of the Nazi threat to Switzerland during World War II has never been adequately acknowledged. The reality was that the Swiss citizenry rifles in hand, stood up to the Nazis, threatening an unacceptable loss of German blood in the event of an invasion. When the Nazis conquered France, they decreed the death […]
How Tiny Switzerland Faced Down Hitler and The Nazis
The Nazis never invaded Switzerland. Stephen P. Halbrook in The Swiss and The Nazis explains to readers that Switzerland had “a unique system in which every able-bodied man served in the army and was well trained in firearms. Every male on reaching the age of 19 was enrolled in the militia army and issued a military […]
Swiss Armed Neutrality
In Target Switzerland, Stepehen P. Halbrook lays out the story of Swiss armed neutrality in World War II. Switzerland, alone among the nations of central Europe, successfully deterred Germany from invading and occupying her territory. Where did a small nation find the resolve and strength- military and spiritual-to resist against overwhelmingly larger and more powerful […]
It’s Too Close to Call in Swiss Vote to Shut Down Nukes
After the disaster at Fukushima, Japan, countries around the world are dealing with the question of whether or not they should shut down their own nuclear power plants. The next country to make such a decision will be Switzerland, where voters will head to the polls for a referendum on the issue on Sunday, May […]
The Swiss Way: Cutting America Free of Executive Pretense
Originally posted November 14th, 2016 “The enviable Swiss have such a wonderfully limited and distributed federal system that many of them could not tell you who the president is on any given day,” writes Kevin Williamson in NRO. As does Dick Young here. The United States has never really been quite that free of executive pretense, […]
These People Don’t Even Know Who Their President Is
In America, other than coma patients and Appalachian hermits, pretty much everyone knows who the president is. That’s a function of how much power the president has come to wield, and of what a central position the office holds symbolically. But there is a country where many people don’t even know who their president is […]
My Latest Hard Currency Haul
What Brexit Means for Switzerland
The Swiss have been attempting to negotiate treaty terms with the EU. In light of the Brexit vote, the Swiss find themselves at the back of the line when it comes to priorities for EU leadership. The Brexit will also have immediate financial impacts that Swissinfo.ch details here: Britain has decided to leave the European Union. […]
