I read an article in Le Monde Diplomatique which talked about the incompatibility of regionalism, federalism, and socialism. From a Swiss perspective, I can only agree. Yes, sometimes it does make sense: perhaps the cost of living in a region is lower and it makes sense to pay less wages or less pensions; but it is not the case that this can be extrapolated to mean that no financial compensations need to flow between regions. An air port, a sea port, a university, an opera, a hospital, lakes, water supply, power plants – many things might not actually exist in a region and need to accessed elsewhere. An unregulated market would make essential services as expensive as possible and so a central body needs to keep things under control and redistribute and enforce where necessary. Here’s a cautionary tale: when family life was very regional, inheritance tax was in the hands of cantons and it didn’t matter much. These days, however, you can access all the services in one canton and live in another who promises less inheritance tax. In order to attract the rich, the race to the bottom begins and now inheritance is 0% in all Swiss cantons. Fuck this shit. It enables money aristocracy. Some cantons are now “for the rich” because taxes go down and rent goes up, the public service degrades and the rich go to private insurances, private hospitals and clinics, send their kids to private schools. And then they drive their damned cars into the neighboring cantons to visit the opera.