Agree with most of your other points - but genuinely puzzled about the above points. I guess it depends on where you are from. I can understand that a lot of these views would depend very much on where you come from. I understand you are from Denmark. I don't claim to be an expert on Denmark, but I have a few Danish friends. I've also actually been there I guess from this perspective taxes in Switzerland seem low when you are used to being taxed well beyond the point of pain.... I sat down a while ago and calculated what my taxes were. I also included all the things that were deducted beyond my control. For example AHV and the fact that I am required by law to have health insurance. It turned out that it wasn't that low at all. I also read an OECD report which compared taxation in various developed countries. Switzerland was listed somewhere in the middle of the table. One tax that is very low compared to other European countries is VAT (Mwst) at 7.6% it certainly seems a lot more sensible than Sweden (just got back from a visit there) which had 25%!!

About your other points - weather - while I'll admit that the weather is better than some of the more northern European countries, it is certainly nothing to write home about (at least for me anyway). The summer could last a little longer, and spring and autumn could easily be done away with since it just seems to be rain

People don't throw their rubbish on the pavement - ever seen a smoker actually put their butt in the bin - even when the bin is 2 meters away? Or you've never seen people pull up at that traffic light and empty their ash tray onto the street? Where I live the gemeinde doesn't supply bins, so people put their rubbish on the street in bags. Every week I walk streets strewn with rubbish from the foxes/dogs which rip open the bags. So actually I find things a bit dirty compared to some places where I've been!

Proper Italian restaurants - Please give me some names, I'd like to see them! I once heard a Swiss bragging about this in Australia. I was in Melbourne at that time, and as I'm sure anyone who reads this who's been there will tell you - there's no shortage of "proper" Italian restaurants. When I arrived in Switzerland I asked this person to show me his favourite restaurant to justify his earlier remarks. I was sorely disappointed. I still enjoy visiting Italy for Italian restaurants, and I always wait until I am over the border before stopping to find a restaurant! Generally I find the "italian" experience, at least in the German speaking part, disappointing.

People love children - yes some do, but I've often heard people complaining that the Swiss aren't big lovers of children compared to many other cultures.

Health insurance - not included in your tax bill? Well technically speaking this is true, but when it is compulsory and it is almost impossible to import an insurance from another country then how is this different? Switzerland has the second highest health costs in the world (second only to the US in terms of spending on health care as a percentage of GDP). Personally I would elect not to have health insurance, but that choice is not mine to make.

Foods in supermarket are generally of good quality - this is the part that amazed me the most. Where do you shop? I want to go there! (please don't say Globus or Jemolli). I'm usually disgusted when I walk into a supermarket. For such a rich country the range and quality in the supermarkets (at least Migros and co-op who have most of the market) is shameful. I've taken to driving 30 minutes to Carrefour to shop with the rest of Switzerland's immigrant population since this is the only place that I've found that seems to come closer to my expectations.

This wasn't intented to be a bitch mail about Switzerland - I guess we can spar it out in the complaints corner instead So I just wanted to say that I generally agreed with most of your points, but not all. Just wanted to add that perceptions may vary enormously depending on where one comes from!

Mark