A British financial journalist talks about the Swiss people

British journalist Sam Jones has been writing from Zurich for the Financial Times for four years. He is now leaving Switzerland for Berlin – and settling his accounts with the state and its financial center.

“In my experience, Switzerland is not a country that many people find likable. Quite the opposite,” he wrote in an article for the newspaper “NZZ am Sonntag”. In the Financial Times' comments column, Switzerland was labeled either a “working paradise” or a “nation of double moral monsters.”

Jones proves readers at least partly right. The Swiss are “numb and insensitive to the problems of the world around them.” Cash is not limited to banks or institutions, but to “ordinary” Swiss residents.

Opinion poll

Do you think the Swiss are not concerned enough with world problems?

Harsh words – but fortunately, there are already voices of opposition to the bleak picture Jones paints of Switzerland. For example, the financial portal “Inside Paradeplatz” disputes this in its own commentary.

“The Swiss government, state governments, cantons, cities, municipalities and the Swiss people donate billions every year to the poor and abused in the world,” said management consultant Klaus Stoelker in response to Jones' criticism.

“In any case,” he adds, criticizing the British, “it is higher per capita than the English, who, as a former colonial power, have a somewhat disgraceful past in this regard.”

Regarding Swiss banks, Jones recalls the scandals of the past few years and says: “Most people in Europe don't think of a first-class service, they think of organizations that have enriched themselves for years by helping to hide taxes.”

Here too, Stoelker disagrees: “Millions of private investors attest that Swiss banks provide excellent services. This affects not only the main bank UBS, but also cantonal banks and private banks. Such a network of qualified service providers is no longer Located in England, which once called itself Great Britain.