I trust my government (Switzerland) way more to do the thing that is right for the people and the law then some private company that has the primary goal of making money. It doesn't mean that governments don't make mistakes but the primary goal is to serve its people.

That is what government is for in a functioning democracy. A functioning government is of the people for the people.

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rozap 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The American mind cannot comprehend

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dismalaf 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's a joke but Visa and Mastercard are American corporations so Americans can feel relatively secure using them. If you live in another developed country, relying on the whims of American entities feels less secure than something subject to the laws of your own country.

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2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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CPLX an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Americans are pretty aware that government by large, multinational, unaccountable corporations sucks and has basically all of the downsides of big government without any of the accountability upsides.

American media may be less likely to share that narrative with you. But the actual people figured this out a while ago and they're mad.

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_DeadFred_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Dang has stated these sorts of comments do not belong on HN news. Discussion of specifics are fine, but nationalist slurs are not.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48100358

Edit: wow, my bad. HN really loves low effort nationalistic slurs as entire comments now.

	▲	switchbak an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think that's a slur, my friend. I think it's a statement of the American mindset. Then again, I'm not American, what do I know.

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marssaxman 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I hope I get to live in such a place some day.

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mothballed 2 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

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kuboble an hour ago | parent [-]

I think this focuses on the wrong issues.

Tin my observation the main advantage of swiss system is the institution of the referendum.

It means that every major decision is decided by the people. The elected government decides on the 99.9% other issues.

The consequence of this system is that absolute majority of public discourse focuses on the issues and problems and not party affiliation.

So e.g. the most consequential election isn't the one where you have to choose the guy who will make everything great again, but e.g. the referendum if the country should spend billions over the next decades on the new tunnel under alps instead of other infrastructure projects.

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mothballed an hour ago | parent [-]

You're completely ignoring that the Swiss system itself was a cultural output of that voting block, one they've kept remarkably insular, and with the remnants of this system going back to something like at least the middle ages. And then lucked out in many ways in WWII where most of Europe did not. The system didn't make the 90-95% euro voting block, the 90-95% white euro voting block made and support the Swiss direct democracy system itself in the context of finding it functional for their relatively insular society.

You can't just ramrod a cultural output into other cultures and expect it to work or even expect different voting demographics who might have individually accepted direct democracy to continue to do so once put in a more diverse country. They tried democracy in Somalia and it worked worse by most measured metrics (including economic) than the xeer system of tribal hearings and decentralized governance for which their culture had adapted.

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kuboble 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

The system is unique to Switzerland.

But it's not the consequence of the skin color or the neutrality. All European countries have been practically 100% white until not long ago with vastly different outcomes.

	▲	mothballed 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Liechtenstein is probably the closest second in direct democracy nature in Europe and I'd argue the outcome was close, maybe even better. They do also have some quasi-monarchist elements too though -- they have a monarch but also right of secession (unique in europe I think) to check the monarch so they have basically a direct democracy clamp on any monarchist tyranny on direct democracy outputs. I think the results have been pretty consistent that out of places 90+% euro-white voters in direct democracy and relatively neutral in WWII performed well (Lichtenstein was neutral in WWII too). I think it's harder to find examples of the creation and effectiveness of direct democracy in places where there is a lot more variance in culture -- Uruguay might be one good example but they are also probably the most guarded of citizenship in all of South America (you can very easily get residency but the judges will produce endless BS requirements if you try to become a citizen; they basically will not let it happen). >But it's not the consequence of the skin color or the neutrality Lets not pretend we're referring to the actual melanin in skin jumping out and doing something. No one thinks an albino kid of black parents is suddenly going to think like a Swiss voter.

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unethical_ban 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I assume the concern is more about moving to mandated digital currency where every transaction is tracked by the government, no cash allowed.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I trust my government (Switzerland)

I do, too. I’m not sure I trust Brussels.

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an hour ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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surgical_fire 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I certainly trust the EU a lot more than I trust US corporations.

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ekianjo 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Do they deserve your trust?

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JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh, 100%. But the choice here is between European banks and a state-run Pix equivalent.

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izacus 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I even trust EU more than the local corrupt country governments.

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Lionga 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Considering the head of EZB is a convicted criminal with, lets call it interesting, letters to the convicted criminal Sarkozy I am not sure what is plague and what cholera.

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wsng 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Lagarde is not a convicted criminal. She was convicted for negligence, but this is not a criminal conviction.

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throwaway2037 an hour ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

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Fnoord an hour ago | parent [-]

Why use a LLM when you got Wikipedia [1]. Which references an article in The Guardian [2]:

> A French court convicted the head of the International Monetary Fund and former government minister, who had faced a €15,000 (£12,600) fine and up to a year in prison. But it decided she should not be punished and that the conviction would not constitute a criminal record. On Monday evening the IMF gave her its full support.

> The verdict came as a surprise as even the public prosecutor had admitted the evidence against Lagarde was “weak” during a five-day trial last week. Jean-Claude Marin told the court Lagarde’s actions fell into the category of politics and not criminality and called for her to be acquitted.

If the public prosecutor admits the evidence is weak, then I take that at face value. I'm open to evidence of the contrary, but without such, I just have to assume the case was weak.

It does strike me as odd that she was convicted. I suppose the evidence wasn't negligible.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Lagarde#Conviction_o...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/christine-laga...

	▲	throwaway2037 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Hat tip. I did not think to check Wiki for this issue. Thanks. I agree: The comment from the public prosecutor is excellent. To me that is a very strong sign of a well-balanced, highly functioning democracy (and its legal system).

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dvfjsdhgfv 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Taken into account than of two convicted criminals, Sarkozy went to prison and will probably be sent there again, whereas Trump is running a big country, I'm pretty sure which is which.

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Fnoord an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Lets see. Gerhard Schroeder, fled to RU. Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted. Silvio Berlusconi, convicted. Geert Wilders, convicted. Slobodan Milošević, convicted. Jean-Marie Le Pen, convicted. Marine Le Pen, convicted.

Donald Trump, convicted (pardoned everyone who attempted a coup on Jan 6 2021).

Victor Orban, surely he'll get convicted.

Benjamin N., Vladimir P.: wanted by ICC.

(This excludes cases like Jan Maršálek / Wirecard fraud / GRU spy. Also, have a peak at all the cleaning Zelenski's government had to do, including in his inner circle.)

Seems we in Europe at least are attempting to uphold the rule of law. I can't say the same for US corporations or US government, given the current administration. That being said... can we stop voting for these narcissistic criminals? Thank you in advance.

	▲	niemandhier an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I met Mr Schröder on Saturday in the Opera. I can therefore vouch that he is not in Russia.
	▲	ekianjo 34 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> attempted a coup funny everyone forgot to bring guns for the coup