Writes Heidi:

I must say, Switzerland is still more free (and better off) than most countries not because of direct democracy, but because of highly local democracy. The truth is, democracy only works within populations of under, say, 50,000 people, and only then if one is free to "vote with one's feet" and move away to another town if one doesn't like how things are going. High (true) literacy rates also tend to help a lot. Anyway, it also doesn't hurt that about 75% of Swiss urban households and maybe 90% in the countryside are armed, often to the teeth. Meanwhile murder rates here are so low, statistics aren't even kept.

There are flaws. Most Swiss are very unhappy with how things have gone downhill over the last 30 years or so and most of that is likely owing to more sway having been given to the federal government in Zurich. Switzerland is a small country and under much, ever growing pressure from places like Washington, London, and Paris because it is so dependent upon foreign trade and exchange. I can say, the Geneva of my youth was much more free than the Geneva of today. Nonetheless, having lived for long stretches in California, Texas, France, and the Middle East (and spent meaningful time in two dozen other countries throughout the world), speaking for myself, I think Switzerland is still by far and away one of the best places in the world to live. Some of my American friends call it "the world's biggest gated community," which cracks me up!

Did you know that the US is one of the only countries in the world that demands the payment of domestic taxes from expatriates, even if they renounce their citizenship? What's worse, Washington has grown so desperate for hard cash lately, they've spun up regulations and begun enforcement actions which have, one way or another, made felons of maybe half the American business people who live outside the US. I know people who are afraid to go back, for fear of being arrested for (new) tax crimes. It's so bad, Swiss banks have been closing the accounts of Americans because they don't want to deal with the IRS.