Good idea for a poll

How about this:

a) I head down the bar every night ...
b) ... until the early hours - getting completely hammered
c) ... with a group of friends ...
d) ... "big-style" - bottles of champagne
e) ... while listening to poetry

Anyone?

This is a great example of the chip on the shoulder I was talking about. Obviously, student life isn't cheap: higher education is seen in most countries as short-term pain financially with a long-term payoff. I think you yourself have extolled elsewhere on the forum the virtues of tuition at Swiss Unis not being at the crazy levels that it is in for example the US, and Switzerland has plenty of other incentives for students, like subsidized health insurance for lower-income brackets, cheaper train fare, cheaper tickets for gigs, etc. Porsch1909 mentions some others.

I think if you're honest, you would also have to admit that lots of people (like me) will happily pick up a couple more rounds when a student is out with a group of normal wage-earners. Let's not make it more dramatic than it really is.

The subsidy for health insurance is there up to quite a high level of income, student or not, and even though I get the subsidy, it's still a quarter of my income. Train fare is cheaper for anyone up to 25 years of age, the reduction on concert tickets is typically less than 5% of the full price, and so on. But I'm not saying it's dreadful, in fact it's quite alright most of the time. Ok, so I haven't had a proper holiday in two years but then a lot of people haven't.

My point was that I simply don't understand what these 120k people are frittering their money away with and whether they realise that there is only enough money in this world for every one of us to earn around 13k. What we have in excess of that, others will lack. I'm not a socialist but this truly is "suffering at a first class level".

I won't.

They should be in their garrets with their books and astrolabes, not out gallavanting with normal folk and taxpayers.

Anyway, regarding salaries, I'm with the chap above. It's all very well for the proletariat to fund their milk stout and winkle habits on their meagre five figure salaries, but if one is to have any kind of civilised life, a salary of at least 500 000 is necessary.

Live in a foul inner-city apartment block with a shared laundry room and the stench of the morlocks seeping through the walls?

I wouldn't keep my dog in such a place.

Last time I checked I pay tax...same rates as you normal folk

Also as an aside. I don't get the health insurance subsidy because I am a student

That has no real relevance whatsoever, and people who earn 60k, 120k or 500k+ have the right to fritter it on whatever they like... which if you go out regularly and have a taste for fine dining, electronics, cars, holidays in far places, or any one of a great number of things, isn't that hard to do I imagine. As your wage increases you either squirrel it away for a rainy day, or adjust your lifestyle accordingly. I really don't get what point you were supposed to have had, other than issuing rhetoric about the world not being a fluffy huggy place where all wealth is shared equally, which lets face it, is just a bit daft.

As long as the rich fritter their money away on frivolities, there is a chance that some of it might trickle down to me.

If they hide it in a bank account in the Caymen Islands, it's no use to anyone, is it?

Jaysus people, talk about ad nauseum!

Regardless of whether you are earning 60K, 80K, 120K or 200K, if you are used to a certain lifestyle in your home country, where the standard of living is lower and if you are only offered a certain amount of salary here in Switzerland based on your skills and years of experience, the way I see it, you only have two choices besides negotiating for more:

1. Take it and adapt
2. Leave it and continue to live the way you do back in your own country.

There really isnt a magic number that you need that absolute minimum to survive in this country. Its all relative and how much you want to move here. And the funny thing is, every time such a thread pops up, because some idiot didnt bother searching the forum despite saying that he did, cue members 2, 3, 4, 5.... who will come along to say that you need 80K minimum, and members 6, 7, 8 protesting that you dont. We all fall for the same bait, hook, line sinker and get into the same debate over and over but its like a whole group of people in a room talking over each other because everyone's circumstances and lifestyle choices are different. Seriously ad nauseum.

I propose we ignore such threads from now on.

__________________
Remember when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and b****-slap the mother-f***er upside the head.

Yes, but I ignore such threads, how can I brag about my ability to survive on 20 Rp a week?

the tax rate depends on your income class...just saying

Ditch that jacket of yours then come and brag. I bet you'll be seeing less freebies and discounts and your living costs will shoot up to 1CHF.

But a student earning 50k will pay the same tax as Joe blogs earning 50k?

Only in Neuchatel... I never really got that.

... and she still said yes!?!

Plus Single Malt?

Not necessarily - the Swiss tax return can ensure 2 people earning GROSS 50k earn very different NET amounts!

To be honest, in all fairness, I dont really have a problem people asking for advise on how to survive on minimal salaries like 120K. New country, new job, new neighbours, new headaches and pain in the necks, anyone can be unsure about what future holds especially when we are not getting the salaries we expected and we have all been there.

But just that the title of such threads should be more appropriate like "Is my 120K salary enough to piss you off?"

There you go