> Switzerland is largely free to make its own legislation
That's a charming idea, but not really a very accurate one. Switzerland is under perpetual pressure to harmonize legislation with partners both close by (EU) and distant (US).
Sure, we are free to make our own legislation, but at some point, those partners would also exercise their freedom not to deal with us under favored terms anymore, and, particularly with the EU, Switzerland tends to eventually adopt a large part of EU legislation.
That's the raw definition of freedom: your freedom stops where the freedom of others starts.
You're free to give passports to war criminals to flee to Argentina, we're free to require Credit Suisse to give us their list of european clients if they want to operate in european markets.
Everyone is free in the best of worlds, long live free Switzerland.
> That's the raw definition of freedom: your freedom stops where the freedom of others starts.
This does not really apply here; the meaning here applies to freedom as a right from an authority (being this a state or an abstract morality). The freedom Switzerland has is not constrained from that[1] but it is constrained by the responsibility they have towards their own population.
[1] Ok, above the state of Switzerland there is the Swiss population. But that does not really have an impact here.
One of the problems is that much content is not available via legal means in Switzerland because the media companies have not got around to it, so many will use torrents as it's the only way to get the content. If they completely block legal access to content, then torrenting will only increase.
Yeah that was exactly my point. Here in Germany tons of people pirate things that aren't available too. Like if something is on US Netflix but not available here, well people are gonna pirate it. If 10 seasons of a show are available on Amazon Prime but Seasons 11-13 are only available on US Amazon Prime or some other US cable network, people are gonna pirate it. It's not really a surprise and leaving that market entirely is just gonna result in more people pirating.
One really annoying aspect of streaming services in Switzerland is that, even when some content is available via legal means, say Netflix, you often have the problem with subtitles. I often run into content that have subtitles only in German or only in French.
It's the UK which is insisting on closed borders, specifically exit from the customs union and ending freedom of movement. The EU is just promising to reciprocate.
Brexit is the UK imposing sanctions on itself. You can watch the GBP tick up or down according to how likely it looks to actually happen on any given day based on stupid statements by the PM.
Sure, what I was saying is that Switzerland could have distanced itself from US and EU, and it would probably have had a similar effect on the Swiss economy (and the CHF).
Without outside money Switzerland would be in a much worse situation.
If by different financial center you mean a lot of banks leaving the UK, that is more a side effect of the UK leaving the custom union than a restriction from the EU. Banks don't like being unable to move their money.
That's a charming idea, but not really a very accurate one. Switzerland is under perpetual pressure to harmonize legislation with partners both close by (EU) and distant (US).
Sure, we are free to make our own legislation, but at some point, those partners would also exercise their freedom not to deal with us under favored terms anymore, and, particularly with the EU, Switzerland tends to eventually adopt a large part of EU legislation.