House of Grown-ups

Getting Swissed

“I would rather be governed by the first two thousand people in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand people on the faculty of Harvard University.”
—William F. Buckley, Jr. (1924-2008), American author and journalist¹

Imagine this: the current 650 Members of the House of Commons, the lower house in the UK, are replaced overnight by the first 650 tax-paying adults listed in Surrey’s telephone directory.

Political ideologies and party politics often paralyze parliament. But what if decision-making power were placed in the hands of everyday citizens? We can hypothesise that this new House of Grown-ups would approach problems with practical, down-to-earth solutions. Intellectuals and experts often prolong many complex issues, the anointed, as Thomas Sowell called them in 1995, who thrive on endless debates. In contrast, ordinary people are more likely to prioritize common sense, lived experience, and pragmatism in problem-solving.

“The next time you see a bum leaving drug needles in a park where children play or urinating in the street, you are seeing your tax dollars at work and the end result of the vision of the anointed.”
—Thomas Sowell²

These 650 non-politicians—teachers, shopkeepers, engineers, financial analysts, small business owners—all of whom could define the term woman with ease, would likely focus on what works in the real world rather than what sounds good in theory. Their decisions would be driven by pragmatism, personal responsibility, and a focus on immediate solutions rather than long-term ideological visions. The House of Grown-ups would also include right-wing thugs, i.e., patriots.

“[T]he English intelligentsia are Europeanized. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought. England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings.”
—George Orwell in 1940³

Immigration is a topic that stirs fierce debate in the UK. Leaving Poland and Hungary's solutions aside, countries like Italy and Denmark have found ways to balance the need for the humane treatment of migrants with the protection of national resources and identity. Denmark, for example, has a pragmatic approach that balances welcoming genuine refugees while limiting economic migration through strict policies. This distinction is critical. Their system is efficient and well-managed, and they offer vocational training for migrants, focusing on rapid integration into Danish society.

The House of Grown-ups would borrow from this practical model. Ordinary citizens, most of whom would not glue themselves to the M25, vandalise art, or glorify terrorist organisations in the Middle East, might reject the overly theoretical and often politically charged debates and instead opt for a more pragmatic immigration system—one that protects the interests of native citizens while giving immigrants a structured, supportive path to integration. Unlike career politicians and the anointed, ordinary people are more likely to understand the concerns of overcrowded schools, job competition, budget deficits, and housing shortages. They would act swiftly to create a system that works for everyone, blending compassion with a practical understanding of limited resources.

“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.”
—Warren Buffett⁴

On almost every other issue, the citizens of Surrey might look to Switzerland. Known for its vast varieties of meltable cheeses direct democracy, Switzerland gives regular people direct control over laws and policy changes through referendums. While it’s unlikely that 650 ordinary Surrey residents would become experts on constitutional law, they could push for a system where the general public has a greater voice in decision-making, like in Switzerland. In an ordinary, law-abiding, grown-ups-driven government, where the number of neo-Marxists, enlightenment-fighters, WEF-cheerleaders, climate cultists and hypocrites would be reduced to a minimum, there would be less room for career politicians to rule from Westminster. Instead, power would be decentralized, and decisions would be brought back to local councils or citizens’ assemblies.

“Davos”
—Keir Starmer’s answer to the question, what do you prefer,
Westminster or Davos?⁵

When it comes to fiscal policy, the Swiss approach is also instructive. Switzerland balances wealth creation with social security, taking a cautious, conservative approach to public spending. The ordinary people from Surrey—who understand the importance of living within a budget—would likely adopt a similarly frugal stance on public finances. They would trim unnecessary spending, redirect funds to where they’re most needed, avoid misallocations to inefficient renewables, and ensure the government stays solvent. National budgets wouldn’t be theoretical exercises; they’d reflect the same balance of thrift and care that households manage every day.

Energy policy is one of the first line items on the House of Grown-ups’ to-do list. Electricity prices in the UK average USD0.47 per KWh, which is roughly twice the price in Switzerland. Ordinary people wonder whether the energy-cost-related excess deaths of 68,000 European grannies and grandpas per winter, as The Economist estimated, aren’t avoidable. Unlike in the House of Clowns, Greta Thunberg wouldn’t be giving lectures on energy policy in the House of Grown-ups. Most grown-ups ignore the doom merchants.

“Ignore the doom merchants, Britain should get fracking. It’s green, it’s cheap and it’s plentiful!”
—Boris Johnson in 2012⁶

By COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, Boris Johnson, too, had joined the doom merchants. The UK is unique in the sense that the anointed doom merchants think they ought to sing:

Stop press: Biden-worshipping Rachel Reeves, the MP who is UK’s anointed Chancellor of the Exchequer but isn’t part of the House of Grown-ups, plans to raise overall taxes on UK’s North Sea oil and gas producers to 78%, the highest of any sector, and strip the industry of tax allowances. In recent years, the House of Clowns has achieved what Hugo Chavez did for Venezuela: become an oil-producing importer of oil.

Speaking of Venezuela, in 1900, one GBP cost around CHF25, and in 1950, around CHF12. In 1971, it cost CHF10. Now, it is CHF1.12. (One ounce of Gold cost GBP4.31 in 1718, GBP4.25 in 1930, and GBP1,950 today.)

“Boring is always best.”
—Ryan Reynolds⁷

One of the stereotypes of the Swiss is that they are allegedly boring. This is what boring, i.e., monetary and fiscal discipline, one-tier policing, and socio-economic-utopia-scepticism, i.e., Thatcherism, translates into economically: USD100 invested in the MSCI UK Index in 1971 stood at USD1,440 on 13 September 2024. USD100 invested in the MSCI Switzerland Index in 1971 rose to USD8,887 in the same period:

In 1910, the market capitalization of the UK stock market was larger than that of the Swiss stock market by a factor of 22.5x. Today, the factor is 1.4x, i.e., MSCI UK is 0.8x of Apple's market cap while MSCI Switzerland is 0.6x. In my 2021 book, Applied Wisdom, I, the author, a resident of Switzerland and holder of both Swiss and British passports, wrote::

“Lacking the ambition to build an empire might be dull (and might or might not rob its citizens of a sound sense of humour). However, dullness (read: stability, sustainability, and predictability) is potentially good when compounding capital on a sustainable basis is a major objective. Or as Oscar Wilde put it:
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish author”

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is a mess. The House of Grown-ups would adopt elements from Switzerland's healthcare model. Switzerland operates a system based on mandatory private health insurance, where individuals are required to purchase basic coverage from a range of non-profit insurers, ensuring universal access. This approach could alleviate some of the NHS's funding issues by diversifying revenue streams. Unlike the NHS, which is heavily reliant on public funding, Switzerland's model encourages competition between insurers, which in turn can lead to better cost management, improved efficiency, and higher standards of patient care. Introducing a similar system in the UK could reduce the burden on the NHS while maintaining universal healthcare access.

“The world would be in good shape if it were to be swissed.”
—Wendy Brown (b. 1955), American political theorist⁸

Moreover, Switzerland's focus on individual responsibility in healthcare decisions, combined with the flexibility of supplementary insurance for non-essential treatments, could lead to more efficient use of resources. Patients in Switzerland can choose their providers and manage their care more proactively, which would reduce waiting times and administrative bottlenecks, two critical issues plaguing the NHS. While such a transition would require significant structural changes, the Swiss model is a common-sense-down-to-earth-approach and offers a blend of market-driven efficiencies with universal access.

As in many Western and non-Western countries, the UK faces increasing pension liabilities due to an ageing population and increasing life expectancy. With fewer workers supporting more retirees, the financial burden on the government is growing. Many defined benefit pension schemes in the public sector are Ponzi-like and costly to maintain. These liabilities are unfunded, meaning they are paid out of general taxation, which burdens public finances and rips off future generations. It goes without saying that reducing optionality for one’s own future generation is not only socio-economically unwise, but it is profoundly immoral, too. (Madoff got 150 years for setting up a Ponzi.)

The UK system is more reliant on the state pension as the primary retirement income, while Switzerland places greater emphasis on occupational pensions to supplement the state pension. While the UK is struggling with the rising costs of unfunded public sector pensions and an ageing population, Switzerland's system, though also under demographic pressure, is structurally more sustainable due to its reliance on funded occupational pensions. The Swiss model has more safeguards through diversified funding sources, exposure to higher-yielding asset classes, and risk-sharing. The Swiss pension system is more resilient to attacks from the anointed, i.e., those who find it difficult to compete with a lettuce.

“Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good… The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.”
—Thomas Sowell (b. 1930), American economist⁹

In his works, Thomas Sowell often pointed out that many social and political issues persist because they are never resolved in a way that aligns with basic human incentives. Politicians have a tendency to create “solutions” that look good on paper but don’t work in the real world. Sowell emphasized the importance of trade-offs, focusing on policies that acknowledge limited resources and the real costs of government intervention. The real cost of inefficient renewables, and all the cost-smokescreening that goes with it, is mindboggling. A House of Grown-ups would replace what sounds good with what works well.

“DESNZ [UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero] are assuming that offshore windfarm capital costs will fall by half and operating costs will fall by three quarters, while productivity will increase by half – and all by next year. It is preposterous.”
—Economist Professor Gordon Hughes¹⁰

Ordinary citizens would instinctively grasp this. Preposterous ideas and the misuse of science for political gain would disappear overnight. Unencumbered by political ideologies and cults, ordinary citizens would be more willing to make necessary compromises. They would cut bureaucracy in a Milei-fashion, streamline/reduce regulations, introduce cost-benefit analysis, and put policies in place that genuinely benefit the working class—not because they serve a political narrative but because they make sense in everyday life. Ordinary people, like those in the phone book, understand that you can’t always have everything; they deal with that reality every day. Their decision-making would be grounded in pragmatism and applied wisdom rather than theoretical models and woke cults.

“No matter how beautiful the theory is,
if it doesn’t agree with reality, it’s wrong.”
—Richard Feynman¹¹

The UK is fifth worst among 43 European countries on Numbeo’s crime index; only France, Belarus, Belgium, and Sweden are worse. How would the House of Grown-ups solve crime? With a solution based on a blend of Guliani and Bukele. Rudy Giuliani's approach to solving crime in New York City in the 1990s was rooted in a pragmatic, tough-on-crime philosophy known as "Broken Windows" policing. This strategy focused on cracking down on minor offences such as vandalism and fare evasion, believing maintaining order in public spaces would prevent more serious crimes. It worked in practice. There was no two-tiering. The socio-economic challenges faced by Lebanon illustrate the long-term consequences that can arise when extremist groups are allowed to operate unchecked, contributing to instability and weakening governance.

The reason there is so little crime in Switzerland is that it's against the law.

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele adopted an even more stringent approach to combat the country's notorious gang violence. Bukele implemented mass arrests under a state of emergency, sidelining the need for traditional legal processes and civil rights protections. His government deployed heavily armed security forces to restore control, not over angry grannies on Facebook, but over gang-dominated areas within its borders. This iron-fisted policy, dubbed the "war on gangs," led to a dramatic decrease in the country’s homicide rate, which had once been among the highest in the world. Bukele remains highly popular domestically due to the visible drop in violent crime under his tenure. This means Bukele and Starmer are “opposites”.

Given that extreme crime is solvable,
it’s almost as if crime is a choice.

In this thought experiment, the first 650 tax-paying grownups from any phone directory in the UK take over the House of Commons. The political landscape would change dramatically. Problems that have festered for years under career politicians and the anointed might suddenly find practical, commonsense solutions. Borrowing from Switzerland, direct democracy and local governance could return power to the people. The NHS is fixable. Energy costs would halve. Borrowing from Denmark and Italy, immigration could be handled with a practical, structured system that works for everyone involved. Borrowing from Giuliani and Bukele, crime is solvable. Replace the ideological bickering of the anointed with the straightforward practicality of real-world experience, and the problems that seem insurmountable today may finally find lasting, meaningful solutions. The 650 grown-ups paying for their own apparel would be an additional blessing.

1. Meet the Press (1965), as quoted in The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When (2006) by Ralph Keyes, p. 82.

2. Thomas Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader (New York: Basic Books, 2011), 23.

3. George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism And The English Genius, Essay, 1940.

4. Interview with Becky Quick, CNBC, 7 July 2011.

5. Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, News Agents podcast, 21 January 2023.

6. Boris Johnson, “Ignore the doom merchants, Britain should get fracking,” The Telegraph, 9 December 2012.

7. That's the motto uttered (at least twice) by Triple A-rated Executive Protection Agent Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) in the action comedy “The Hitman's Bodyguard.”

8. Interview by Peer Teuwsen from 31 May 2018, NZZ am Sonntag, 1 July 2018.

9. Sowell, Thomas (1993) “Is Reality Optional? And other Essays,” Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, p. 23.

10. Energy experts call for Whitehall to correct ‘preposterous’ renewables claims, press release, Net Zero Watch, 17 September 2024.

11. Paraphrase. Feynman emphasized the importance of experimental verification in science, highlighting that no matter how elegant a theory may appear, its validity hinges on its agreement with experimental data.