homogenous societies are inherently more efficient? the reality is the beauty of America is that we are a heterogeneous one, but there are of course some downsides to that.
Considering that I use at least four languages[1] every day, and am thankful[2] to be living someplace that has not yet been completely overrun by chains and big box stores, I'd argue the assertion of a "heterogenous" US might need defending.
On the original question: I think switzerland is nice for two reasons. (a) we didn't blow ourselves up twice last century, which meant that even with little absolute growth we went from being a relatively poor european country to a relatively rich one, and (b) putting more emphasis on quality of life than on hustle results in, well, more quality of life.
[1] It doesn't work for francophones, who have a general swiss (or at best cantonal) idiom, but in swiss-german there are several isoglosses just within my valley that allow me to place a speaker. Granted, my valley has been historically universally catholic, but these days that just means that our protestants and muslims get lumped together in the "not christian" bucket :-)
[2] a french friend put it this way, earlier this century: "Modern europeans are too busy feeling sorry for those poor benighted savages who had the misfortune to be born a few villages over, to bother travelling halfway around the world to bring their superior way of life to people at gunpoint." À mon avis, c pas faux.
In the city I grew up in, official notices were routinely made in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and I regularly encountered people speaking Korean and Chinese as well. Even my grandma's rural town, with a population of under 5,000 and an hour's drive to the closest city, has people and restaurants representing four or five different nationalities. If you're perceiving the US as a country where everyone only speaks English and only eats at McDonalds, that's not accurate.
Aha, things have improved since last century. When in California I did use spanish as well as english, and in Louisiana french as well as english — but back then the concept of "melting pot" was still current, so one of these languages was clearly the prestige dialect.
Looking at the current cabinet, I'm sure if I scrolled enough in @SecElaineChao I could find some chinese. Sorry for my outdated impression.
but we utterly lack any mother-tongue sinophones. And although our current president, @s_sommaruga, has some romanche in her feed, she uses much more english.)
uh yeah you're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a country that is majority white isn't homogeneous because multiple languages are spoken
when I speak of homogeneity I'm talking about race, immigration, etc.
> uh yeah you're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that a country that is majority white isn't homogeneous because multiple languages are spoken
Well, he convinced me. (Largely because I have lived in countries with communities like that).
[Out of curiosity, does my testimony change your mind?]
no - because Switzerland's population is 70% Swiss, with the remaining mostly from nearby countries that have similar values and complexions. Just because you grow up learning various languages does not mean your society is heterogeneous.
A society where every learns 4 languages and looks the same is homogenous.
You aren't: you are trying to defend the silly notion that a group of white people are homogenous even if they have different languages.
You state such a thing (diversity) cannot EVER possibly be true. The OP and I testify otherwise. From lived experience - mine with nothing to do with Switerland (or Canada in case you are guessing).
Consider today then whether the Serbo-Croation war could ever be possible under your model of reality (who would fight who?). Except it was.
I think it's a little disingenuous to call America a heterogenous society. While the share of population for different ancestries[1] makes it look heterogenous, a large part of the equation is cultural homogeneity. American culture is derived from its anglo history and I'd argue economic and political pressures have forced "model minorities" to forgo their heritage.
