The people in Switzerland

by David
(Chofu)

I saw a lecture by a Chinese history professor of Tsinghua a few days ago. The lecture was about whether we are able to learn from history to predict the future. Then he asked a question: "Which two nations in the world are the most different?" Later he gave me his answer, which surprised me a lot.

He claimed that Switzerland and the US are the most different countries in the world. And his reason is that the people in both countries are able to vote freely, but the people in Switzerland choose a government that administers most things about people's life, while the Americans choose the most free-style government.

In fact, I just thought about all the democratic countries, at least most democratic countries, just like the US. Now I realized that I was wrong.

I learned from the internet and Mike, that the Swiss need to face many kinds of constraint regulations from cradle to grave. Even the Swiss are able to buy alcohol in only one chain supermarket with franchise rights. On the other hand, the controlling of guns is just so in the US.