Many left-leaning intellectuals say their vision of economic paradise is based not on leftist dictatorships like Venezuela but on Scandinavia, which is wealthy and democratic as the United States but more equal, with affordable health care and college for all.

There is however a country far richer and just as fair as any in the Scandinavian quartet of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. This $700 billion economy is among the world’s 20 largest, bigger than any in Scandinavia. Steady growth recently pushed it past Norway as the world’s richest nation with an average income of $82,000. Surveys also rank it among the happiest countries, and it delivers welfare benefits as comprehensive as Scandinavia but with smaller government and a more open and stable economy. This less socialist, more successful utopia is Switzerland.

In recent decades Switzerland has widened its income lead over Scandinavia, and narrowed the gap in terms of inequality. The middle class now holds about 70% of the wealth in both Switzerland and Scandinavia. The big difference: the typical Swiss family has a net worth around $540,000, twice its Scandinavian peer.

For the most part however intellectuals ignore Switzerland as a model, perhaps put off by its outdated reputation as a shady little tax haven. In 2015, Switzerland agreed under pressure to share bank records with foreign tax authorities, but that has not slowed the economy at all. Switzerland always was more than secretive banks.

Capitalist to its core, Switzerland’s highest individual tax rate is 36%, the lowest in Europe. Government spending amounts to a third of gross domestic product, compared to half in Scandinavia. Only one in seven Swiss work for the government, also half the Scandinavian average. And Switzerland is more open to trade, with a share of global exports at least double that of any Scandinavian economy.

Streamlined government and open borders have helped make this landlocked, mountainous country an unlikely incubator of globally competitive companies in industries from biotech to engineering. Thirteen of the top 100 European companies are based here, twice as many as the four Scandinavian nations combined.

Though multinationals are concentrated in big cities, the economy is as decentralised as the political system. Travelling southwest from Zurich to Geneva recently, I was struck by how many iconic Swiss exports also originate in its provinces – Swiss Army knives from Schwyz, watches from Bern, St Bernard puppies from a mountain pass in Valais.

Though the Swiss franc has been rising steadily in recent years, it has not undercut exports from Switzerland, one of the few rich countries that continues to expand its share of global exports. Such is the Swiss reputation for excellence, customers readily pay more for its goods. And resilient demand, in turn, helps explain why the economy is so stable.

Switzerland has not been hit by a domestic financial crisis since the 1970s, while the Scandinavian countries were wracked by crises in the 1990s and suffered much sharper downturns than Switzerland following the global crisis of 2008.

If there is any sign of trouble it is that in trying to slow the rise of the franc, Switzerland cut interest rates to record lows ahead of its European peers, triggering a lending boom that has driven corporate and household debt up to 250% of GDP, a risky height. No paradise is perfect.

For all its local charms, Switzerland is worldly in the extreme. The Swiss are a polyglot mix of German, French and Italian speakers, many intimidatingly fluent in multiple languages. The foreign born population has been rising for more than a century and accounts for a quarter of the whole, nearly half non-European.

Switzerland has been welcoming more immigrants than any Scandinavian country since the 1950s. It is on track to accept 260,000 immigrants between 2015 and 2020, expanding its population by 3% – one of the highest immigration rates in the developed world.

It filters immigrants to fill jobs, not unite families or meet humanitarian needs, but so do Australia and Canada, and they are widely admired models of how rich economies can employ immigrants to plug holes in ageing domestic work forces.

The Swiss labour force gets an added boost from a meritocratic public school system that starts steering students as young as 12 toward their academic strengths. Its world class universities charge average annual tuition of only $1,000, and leave graduates thousands of dollars less in debt than Scandinavian schools.

Diehard admirers of Scandinavian socialism overlook the change of heart in countries such as Sweden, where heavy government spending led to the financial crises of the 1990s. Sweden responded by cutting the top income tax rate from 90% to as low as 50%. Public spending fell from near 70% of GDP to 50%. Growth revived, as the largest Scandinavian economy started to look more like Switzerland, streamlining government and leaving business more room to grow.

The real lesson of Swiss success is that the stark choice offered by many politicians – between private enterprise and social welfare – is a false one. A pragmatic country can have a business friendly environment alongside social equality, if it gets the balance right. The Swiss have become the world’s richest nation by getting it right, and their model is hiding in plain sight.