Hacker News Reader

Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

> These things don’t exist in most other countries.

American exceptionalism eh?

European (Czech) here.

There is an attitude difference between most European countries and the USA when it comes to starting businesses. Bankruptcy is shameful here, almost on par with deliberate crime, and carries a lot of stigma; you will be considered untrustworthy from that point on and will find it harder to attract funding or even customers, once they learn about a bankruptcy in your past.

The population is more conservative with regard to technical development, so innovations mostly take form of very gradual improvements. Disruption of any kind won't find much purchase. Americans seem to be readier to try new things out. Most European megacorporations are 50+ years old and their founders are long dead.

In graduate school I had a colleague from France echo a similar observation - "In America you go out and raise money for a business idea, fail completely, lose all the money, and then go out and do it again. In France you'd be seen as a failure and never get another chance again."

I can assure bankruptcy is no walk in the park in the US. While our bankruptcy laws are leagues ahead of most Europe the amount of bankruptcies is insane in the US. The majority, >50%, are medical bankruptcies. And then you become a pariah to banks for 7 years or more!

While you may believe bankruptcies are used strategically, a la Trump, vast majority are from working people who simply have no choice and are at the end of the rope.

This fact about medical bankruptcies is not correct. It derives probably from Sen Warren's work, but the study is quite shoddy. (e.g. it defined as a medical bankruptcy as any bankruptcy here there was >$1000 of debt at the time of filing)

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/07/conside...

The guy who wrote it is not an American and it's a fact that e.g. opening a business in U.S. is easier and cheaper than in most other countries.

It took me €80 in cash and an afternoon to incorporate a liability limited company in Germany. That seemed pretty easy, too.

But it seems the US is unique in the way that raising capital is much easier than elsewhere. That can be great if you want to start a business, but it also means that competition can grow quickly, too.

They’re not an American but they’re also not from “other countries”, but from one specific country. None of the 27 countries of the EU have that level of corruption or hyperinflation either. My country has an absolutely horrible reputation for business and somehow I’ve had mine for almost 9 years without much bother.

As an immigrant to the US, yeah, American exceptionalism. Exceptionalism is defined as "unusual; not typical".

America is not usual or typical. So yeah, it's exceptional.

It's amazing as an immigrant to come here and find out there are plenty of Americans that take it all for granted.

Why do you think so many people want to come to the US?

How many countries have you lived in?

> Exceptionalism is defined as "unusual; not typical". > America is not usual or typical. So yeah, it's exceptional.

Most countries are unique, and therefore "unusual".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com