CH's income tax is graduated and can only be estimated as a function of which canton and community you live in. I live in Zürich city in canton Zürich. I can't recall exactly what the figure works out to be, but it is nothing compared to taxes I would pay were I still living in the United States (hint: as an American abroad, I am a citizen of two countries on the planet who tax their citizens working and domiciled abroad). I get partial tax credit (it's basically double taxation; don't let anyone tell you otherwise).

I estimate my CH tax averages to 20 percent my gross income, which is pathetically low by European standards, and before any of my fellow U.S. countrymen balk at this, consider that we have a working and efficient society here. It is mostly free market with some degree of state-run business. Where the state runs something, it runs it typically better than the private or public sector does in the U.S. All of this is to say, comparing taxes between the two is apples and oranges.

Another consideration: there are stupid voters here like anywhere else; but after they burn their hands on the metaphorical stove once, they recognize their mistakes and attempt to correct. I would give this country a higher social durability rating than any part of the United States. Not having the whole mythology of predestined preeminice shoved down their throats helps.

Last I checked when living in the U.S., my average tax was about 30-something percent when combining federal and state.

CH also has a yearly tax of wealth (property, stock, bank assets, etc.), but it is effectively so miniscule that it remains unnoticed for ordinary people. For me, it would be 0.1 percent on total wealth per annum.

Tax rate is orthogonal to the effectiveness of society, governance, and civil society. A starve-the-beast mentality injures all three of these. Sorry. I hate to put it so bluntly and bust anyone's bubble. You get what you believe in and pay for.