Microsoft anounces encrypted voting system

[Bud]

I remember time when Microsoft offered all email to be sent via their mail servers and they would charge for it. That was to  control spam, they said. That was furiuosly rejected by everyone.

[Bud]

An electronic voting system will achieve one thing for sure. That is people like Mueller will always have job.

[Kjelt]

At any rate, what do you think is the cause of their higher standard of living and productivity? Living in the mountains?

Just guessing,
Since they live in a country where they always were dependent on the import of many agricultural products due to their mountain country they had to early decide to make products that added high value for export.
I don't think they make very high tech innovative products but what they make is of excellent quality which is what they are famous for. If that will be sustainable in the lng run the way global short term throw away  consumerism is going has to be seen.

Concerning cultural differences, here in Holland the age we may retire has been postponed till 68 and growing with the average lifetime xpectancy and we are barely complaining ( no strikes nothing). We know that if we do not the economy will plummet and the future for our kids will be much worse because the next generation will have to pay for it.
Compare that to France where an suggested increase from pension age of 60 to 65 or something like that results in massive strikes, you see there are lots of cultural differences.
I am not saying one is better than the other. Having a more relaxed way of living might increase life expectancy and you may have a nicer life. I am also doubting why I am working 44 hours a week and still get less than my father in the 80s per hour doing more high educational technical job. Why our salaries were 0 increased the last 8 years while the economy florished. Why our government paid billions to save banks and so on. Sometimes I wish I was a simple hunter in the forest living of the land instead of getting up at six to work and pay for the mortgage that is insanely high in our country.
Anyway putting the Swiss in your beautifull country is not changing anything IMO.

[tszaboo]

At any rate, what do you think is the cause of their higher standard of living and productivity? Living in the mountains?

...
Concerning cultural differences, here in Holland the age we may retire has been postponed till 68 and growing with the average lifetime xpectancy and we are barely complaining ( no strikes nothing). We know that if we do not the economy will plummet and the future for our kids will be much worse because the next generation will have to pay for it.
Compare that to France where an suggested increase from pension age of 60 to 65 or something like that results in massive strikes, you see there are lots of cultural differences.
...

I have the feeling, if they would increase the income tax to 101% here, all would happen is: a bunch of people complaining.

[daqq]

I don't think they have a better culture.

There's culture and there's political culture, or maybe public standards for politics and politicians.
In one country a politician resigns due to failing to mention a ~3000$ gift.

Here, the current Speaker of the National Council is quite frankly a corrupt moron, with a university degree that was at given to him 'in accordance with exceptionally low standards' (the whole thing is plagiarized). He comes from a family that had managed through some very interesting methods gain stuff from the state WELL below value. He did not resign after numerous scandals and projects an air of smugness about the whole affair. His political party had numerous scandals, employs under-qualified people for posts of vital importance... At the moment they have a 7.5% rating in the polls. And he's not the worst of the lot in our political spectrum.

I'm guessing that in Japan someone like him would have been wordlessly handed a sword, locked in a small room and expected to know what to do. And would probably do it.

I think that political culture has a LOT to do with the living standards and the success of a country. If nothing else, countries that vote awful people into positions of power get awful people into positions of power.

[ElectronicSupersonic]

...Concerning cultural differences, here in Holland the age we may retire has been postponed till 68 and growing with the average lifetime xpectancy and we are barely complaining ( no strikes nothing). ...
...Compare that to France where an suggested increase from pension age of 60 to 65 or something like that results in massive strikes...

Here people aren't happy either (Lithuania is one of the leading countries in EU by sluiced rate which is telling), but people don't protest (although do complain, but officials mostly don't give a shit) - people just emigrate to other EU member states (UK, Ireland, Spain) or elsewhere where life is presumably better. A silent protest if you will.

Since there are less and less people to pay taxes (due to emigration), government has switched to a bulldozer mode by using the simplest and most effective means to increase tax revenue. That usually mean complete disregard of personal financial situation and other nasty things. Say there is a system in place, which allows certain governmental agencies (if you owe something to the state) to lock any persons bank account government is aware off or deduce founds owed without even asking/permission.

As to Swiss, it's easy - they have banks. Good banks.

[daqq]

people just emigrate to other EU member states (UK, Ireland, Spain) or elsewhere where life is presumably better. A silent protest if you will.

Sounds familiar It's why I have a friends at NIST, CERN and a few other interesting places.

[james_s]

Well, they've managed several hundred years of democracy and brotherly love and they invented to cuckoo clock. (https://youtu.be/nyuJQ_UO7OE?t=3)

At any rate, what do you think is the cause of their higher standard of living and productivity? Living in the mountains?

I don't think it's possible to distill things like this down to a simple cause-effect relationship. There are many factors that contribute, culture, education, geography, luck, etc. Small countries with exceptionally homogeneous populations tend to have smooth running political systems because there is much less time spent fighting and less need for compromise to try to please everybody, an impossible task in a large and highly diverse nation.

[bd139]

This is hilarious.

I've got a fair bit of Swiss blood in me and my father lived there for the first 15 years of his life. I've been there numerous times. Looking in from the outside, the Swiss only have the appearance of winning. A lot of people are living in abject poverty, it's full of racists and nationalists, everything is ridiculously expensive which pushes income disparity and a lot of people are utterly backwards including half of my family if I'm honest!

[soldar]

Small countries with exceptionally homogeneous populations tend to have smooth running political systems because there is much less time spent fighting and less need for compromise to try to please everybody, an impossible task in a large and highly diverse nation.

Yeah, it helps that the Swiss are totally homogeneous and all speak Swiss. (Or is it Swedisch? ... Swisschisch?...? )

[soldar]

It is their attitude to work. Which is 60dB over that of the Chinese.

I guess every thread needs to have at least one post bashing the Chinese for no reason at all. Some people just can't get used to the new world order.

I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords. (If you can't beat them, join them, and all that.)

[magic]

full of racists and nationalists

Interesting perspective, may I know which place in the world isn't?
And... if we are at that, what's IRA? What's Brexit? What's "pack and parcel of living in a big city"?

[bd139]

Well we had a good stretch between about 2002-2014 where things were going in the right direction and they were marginalised and not given an audience. Then the insidious sewer grime behind the scenes worked out everyone was on social media now and started to pull the old tricks on that. The structure of society is kept only by dividing it as a distraction.

@soldar: China. Yes. If I was going to learn a second language now I'd learn Mandarin. Aliexpress gets some of cut and pastes occasionally 混蛋!
 

[tszaboo]

Small countries with exceptionally homogeneous populations tend to have smooth running political systems because there is much less time spent fighting and less need for compromise to try to please everybody, an impossible task in a large and highly diverse nation.

Yeah, it helps that the Swiss are totally homogeneous and all speak Swiss. (Or is it Swedisch? ... Swisschisch?...? )

I really hope that you are joking. They speak like 6 languages there, 3 of them is some kind of local dialect of German French or Italian, which is impossible to understand.

[bd139]

And if you speak the wrong one to the wrong people they get offended. And if you speak plain German they ignore you. Found it was best to speak English.

[soldar]

I really hope that you are joking.

What leads you to believe I might be joking?

[Bud]

It is their attitude to work. Which is 60dB over that of the Chinese.

I guess every thread needs to have at least one post bashing the Chinese for no reason at all. Some people just can't get used to the new world order.

I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords. (If you can't beat them, join them, and all that.)

Yes i can see it in your avatar. Now you do not have to ship your products with all screw tightened.

[soldar]

I'm sorry, I'm a little confucious. Who's the one with the loose screw?

[ElectronicSupersonic]

... The structure of society is kept only by dividing it as a distraction. ...

I'd say it is kept by distraction itself (from the actual doings and actual state of things) - dividing is merely one of many ways to distract. "Wag the dog" movie dives a bit in to the subject (of distraction).

In general, state-to-people relations remind me parents-to-kids relations, where kids are told a bed time stories to make them fall asleep, or are purposely being distracted by the parents when a kid is being capricious. Same goals - same technics.

[magic]

Well we had a good stretch between about 2002-2014 where things were going in the right direction and they were marginalised and not given an audience.

Indeed, I have never realized until a few years ago to what extent the West relied on responsible journalism and regulated education just to maintain public order

Then the insidious sewer grime behind the scenes worked out everyone was on social media now and started to pull the old tricks on that.

Admittedly the whole point of bringing Internet to the masses was democratization of communications and giving voice to the marginalized, lol. The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it, Streisand Effect, I still remember the 2000s.
I for one never liked that idea, too much of an elitist. But what the heck, at least I was generally in favor of freedom of speech.
Seeing Americans all in favor of it too I sorta assumed their country / hopefully the whole West is designed around being able to handle it and they know what they are doing.
Then the 2010s came

[ElectronicSupersonic]

... Admittedly the whole point of bringing Internet to the masses was democratization of communications and giving voice to the marginalized, lol. ...

I remember back in mid to late 2000's local government was giving tax refunds (VAT) to everybody for every PC purchased with legal OS (read Windows). Officially it was to stimulate IT development amongst common people. Knowing that government is not a charity organisation, it looked suspicious but I couldn't tell why. Then much later Snowden stuff happened, that solved the puzzle.

[tooki]

I really hope that you are joking.

What leads you to believe I might be joking?

Well, either you know Switzerland and it’s a joke, or it’s not a joke and you just showed that you don’t know Switzerland at all. Homogeneous?!? The Swiss don’t even like their countrymen from the next valley over...

And there is no language called “Swiss”.

Are you sure you’re not confusing Switzerland and Sweden, as so many people do? (After all, in Spanish they’re “Suiza” and “Suecia”, respectively.)

[bd139]

So true. My uncle moved to a different canton and when they found out where he came from, none of his neighbours would speak to him. I understand the younger generations are somewhat better but when I have been there they're all missing and in other countries. Tells a tale that does.

[Simon]

I think a country is as good as

1) it's people
2) it's leadership that are elected by the people.

Unfortunately people on the whole are selfish and short sighted, and this is where national democrazy falls down. It's a greed that democrazy is the best way of doing things, but it is only agreed that it is the best way. No one ever promissed that democrazy was going to be fair, it's simply the best we have and relies of fair voters to make the best choice for the collective. And this is where things become political because you will have a party or politician that target a particular majority and gains their trust and vote by telling them what they want to hear or promissing their "type" something better than what is on offer to everyone else that won't vote for them. And because most voters are not that clever and only looking at themselves in a very selfish way in the short term they vote for people that do not have everyones interests at heart. And so the cycle repeats. Until making false statements in political campains is made illegal and until people stop voting with their next day's pay packet in mind there will always be a problem.