Electoral workers prepared a polling station for the referendum on the European Union in north London. Credit Neil Hall/Reuters
To help explain why the British voted to leave the European Union, look to Switzerland.
The famously neutral Swiss rejected membership in the European Economic Area, a potential steppingstone to the European Union, in a 1992 referendum, but Switzerland didn’t formally withdraw its dormant application until last week, when the Swiss Parliament — caught up in a burst of nationalism fueled in part by Britain’s vote on Thursday on whether to leave the European Union — decided overwhelmingly to terminate it.
Only “a few lunatics” still want to join the European Union, said the Swiss lawmaker Thomas Minder, a staunch proponent of “Swissism,” after last week’s action.
Swiss per capita GDP: $80675 compared to $43,771 in Britain
That may be an overstatement, but it’s easy to see why the Swiss would feel vindicated. With a per capita gross domestic product of $80,675 in 2015, according to the International Monetary Fund, Switzerland ranks second in the world (after Luxembourg), far ahead of Britain ($43,771) and the United States ($55,805.)
Switzerland’s unemployment rate was 3.