Ultimate Blog Challenge - What is your preferred Environment to be in?

Today is Day 14 of October's Ultimate Blog Challenge, and the writing prompt is

What is your preferred environment to be in?

This seems like a very open question. 

Work environment? Living environment? Political? Social? Natural? All of the above?

Let's talk about work first. I definitely thrive in a culture of trust, generosity and cooperation. An environment in which people ask for my opinion and listen to it. Better yet, they approve of it and ask me to go ahead and implement my ideas. Can they support me in any way, do I need additional resources, more budget? 

Haha, let's keep it realistic.

Living environment: Given the choice between busy city or quiet countryside village, I prefer the latter. I have too much going on in my little mind, I don't think I could deal with traffic, sirens, drunk people and the like over a longer period of time. We live a half hour's train ride away from Zurich, which is Switzerland's largest city. That's pretty perfect for me. After a day there, it's good to come home. Even though our town's census doubled within the last 20 years, it's still small, and - having originally grown up here - I know a lot of people. I may not attend most of social events, especially since Colin's not attending school here anymore, but I truy appreciate the community. Recently I have become a somewhat more active member by contributing to our quarterly magazine. 

Living environment in terms of building and setup: Let me give you my ideal summer and winter residence types: 

Beach house, deck chairs, lots of windows, ceiling fan, A/C, mosquito nets, fully functional fridge and freezer with an endless supply of fruit juices, sparkling wine and ice cream!

Log cabin, wooden floors, red brick fireplace with a crackling fire, some comfort food (prepared by a talented chef), wine and coffee, fluffy socks, blankets and cinnamon stick candles,...

You get the picture. One is allowed to dream.

Moving on to my ideal political environment. Where I live, it is a little too conservative, I wouldn't mind a more liberal approach in terms of education, family friendliness and fun. Things are a little stiff around here. On the other hand, considering what's currently going on in Israel, I am of course grateful to be happily living in neutral, stable Switzerland. 

I will still share what is on my mind where politics in my country are concerned. Just recently we learned the following:

The popular initiative "good and affordable supplementary family childcare for all" aka childcare initiative, wants to anchor the principle in the constitution that every child from the age of three months until the end of elementary school has a right to institutional supplementary family childcare, provided that the parents want to make use of these offers. According to the text of the initiative, the federal government would have to bear two-thirds of the costs.

The Federal Council shares the view that supplementary family childcare must continue to be promoted and that the public sector should provide greater financial relief for parents.

However, the government is of the opinion that the tight financial situation of the Confederation does not permit any further commitment. It is the task of the cantons (states) to expand supplementary family childcare, and employers should also participate in this expansion in an appropriate form.

*Sigh* There we go again. 

Somebody should take care of it / pay for it, and by somebody we mean somebody other than us.

Society in Switzerland is generally pretty backwards in terms of distribution of roles. Mothers stay home, Dads go to work and make the big bucks. School schedules are still very much oriented towards this convenient "fact of life". Kids come home for lunch, kids have Wednesday afternoons off, kids are being sent home if their teacher is sick. I talked about it just the other day.

Every Mom who considers accepting a (part-time) job, has to do her math first. Depending on daycare prices, number of children and what the job pays, she may not even financially break even. If she decides to still go to work, even though her entire pay check is eaten up by daycare costs, it is for her personal fulfilment and/or in order to simply keep her spot in the working world.

Who benefits from this scenario in terms of money? Taxes and social securities, to which Moms contribute without being eligible for pension benefits if they don't work a minimum of a 45% workload calculated on the minimum wage for a full time job, which is CHF 3,749 (that's currently USD 3,044). After deductions you are left with CHF 3,254. Remember though, we only want to work, let's say, three days.

Now in order to be able to go to work for these three days a week to even meet the requirements to earn savings for your pension fund, you need to find a place who takes care of your kids. Let's say you have a baby (younger than 18 months) and a toddler (not yet in Kindergarten). In a random childcare center in the city of Zurich you will pay CHF 3,363 a month. 

See what I mean? You either need a job that pays better, or you don't even bother to go to work if you just look at it from a money perspective. Did I mention that with this net pay, you have not yet paid for healthcare and taxes? 

So yeah, the government agrees that something has to be done, but they don't want to pay for it. Who pays for it in the meantime? Families tightening their belts. Grandparents who babysit for free. Communities who at least offer subsidies for childcare. 

I agree that employers need to catch up in making the work environment more family friendly. It is still very, very hard to find decently paid part-time jobs that come with enough flexibility to pick up the kids from childcare, should you even be so lucky as to have an actual and affordable spot for your kid(s).

Social environment. I like open minded, hands-on people with their feet on the ground who mind their own business but are not opposed to helping each other out. 

When it comes to my desired natural environment I will go for a moderate climate and a safe place in terms of earthquakes, floodings, wildfires and other natural disasters. Switzerland fits these requirement pretty well, except summers have become too hot and humid for my taste. Today is October 14, and there are still #&@$!%* mosquitos terrorizing me at night! 

Bottom line, I am fortunate and grateful to live in a near perfect environment. 

How about yourself? All things considered, what is your preferred environment to be in?