>>>there are enormous differences between the swiss and the americans, like I've explained earlier. In short it has to do with cultural, economic and social differences. But getting a handle on that is impossible as its what makes americans... americans. Getting the a handle on the widespread availability of guns, esspecially to the ones who should not own a gun, however is much more doable.
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>I do agree that Switzerland has less of an underclass problem than many other nations, meaning that many/most citizens never are exposed to the sorts of troubles that start there. But comparing middle class to middle class, maybe Americans are more courteous and brought up in a more socially adept fashion. Certainly a mother struggling to get her stroller up some stairs in a mall would agree with this compared to Basel where assistance might consist of a hausfrau loudly berating because the mother dragged her stroller in the wrong door. Even some Swiss apologize for the behavior of other Swiss in such situations! The flip side of this coin is that the hausfrau thinks her behavior is normal and (correctly) believes that her own child in school is perfectly safe even though there are automatic rifles all over the place. The big question is how to take the good without too much of the not so good?

A friend of mine, of German extraction was born and raised in Vancouver. For a while he went to work in Germany for SAP. While he was there his wife got pregnant but unfortunately suffered an early-term miscarriage. They lived close to a hospital so he rushed her over there himself. He parked as close as he could to the emergency entrance, which happened to be a taxi stand, and started helping his blood-covered wife hobble into emergency.

Just then, a cabbie pulled in behind him, stuck his head out his car window and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Get your *#$~! car out of there!" (in German)

My friend said that, at that moment, he understood with perfect clarity, how it was possible to kill in a fit of passion.

He also said that, while it was by far the worst rudeness they encountered, it was far from the only incident. After that, he and his wife swore they would not raise any of their children in Germany. And they didn't.