glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear).
No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
Corporate tax rates are indeed higher in Germany. At the same time, there are lots of funding opportunities for startups from communal, national and EU business development programs, that can be seen as sort of a tax break.
Hiring is probably harder, since programmers are generally less interested in startups and prefer safe corporate jobs (outside of Berlin). Wages are significantly lower in Berlin than in West German cities. Firing is much harder than in the U.S.
Private healthcare here is much better, and about the same cost. It's a red herring.
and hiring people in germany is much easier than in the valley or in new york, where you have huge competition from the big ones like google, facebook etc...