Swiss Watching: Inside the Land of Milk and Money

by Diccon Bewes

The Swiss live long and prosper. They are one of the healthiest and wealthiest nations on earth, where an average life expectancy of 83.4 years, second only to the Japanese,26 is matched by a per capita GDP of $80,000, second highest in the world after Luxembourg.27 Nevertheless,

War and peace are not black and white, or in German schwarz and weiss; combine the two and you get Schweiz, the German for Switzerland. How apt for a country that lives in that grey area of armed neutrality, striving for peace but continually preparing for war. This seemingly untenable position may be why Switzerland has survived unscathed for centuries.

It’s typically Swiss to create a world-beating product then not shout about it; modesty in all things. The irony is that this is essentially a conservative country where change is often viewed with suspicion.

The Alpine republic is by no means a perfect country; it can sometimes feel like an exclusive club where outsiders are reluctantly welcomed and rules are forever set in stone. But its virtues – the scenery, the quality of life, the sense of community – more than outweigh its faults. There is no paradise on earth, but the land of milk and money comes close.