It’s incredible how the US has lead the world in so many areas. What are some of the factors that other countries lack from a political standpoint where the US excels ?
- European regulation would swiftly destroy any technical innovation coming out of Europe
- There is certain benefit to companies being HQed in USA - legitimacy, American law being standard. E.g. Many European startups end up being officially HQed in USA, even if founders, majority of work is done in Europe - access to VC funding.
- USA companies are "using" intellectual capital of EU - many companies on an upward trajectory got acquired by USA companies - e.g. Skype. In my city most engineers either work remotely for USA companies, or work in European office of an American company
- Just European mentality - lower tolerance for potential failure, less "go for the moon" mentality, more "collectivism" experienced by higher taxes or super strict employment law in many places
- There are "network" effects to doing most types of business. Notice that most companies outside of USA are either resources (e.g. Aramco), hardware (network effects in Asia), outsourcing (the whole point is being in cheaper place than USA, e.g. TCS), medical (not sure why so many are from non-USA), banks (those need to be everywhere).
https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_labour_pr...
There's barely any productivity per hour worked difference between the US and most European countries.
At the same time, I don't know how to properly measure human productivity. I mean, how do you compare productivity of people working at OpenAI to productivity of people working at Walmart?
Different years.
> At the same time, I don't know how to properly measure human productivity. I mean, how do you compare productivity of people working at OpenAI to productivity of people working at Walmart?
Exactly. Just because Ireland has a lot of services HQed there due to a beneficial tax regime doesn't make an Irish person working 40h at Google who count all EU revenues there more or less productive than someone working at a midsized German manufacturer of critical car components (say brakes).
GDP per hour worked is the least bad way of measuring we have, and I'm not aware of other ones. It can easily be skewed though, because it relies on a poor metric at its base, GDP.
My point was just that the difference between US and EU is minimal, with the imperfect way of measuring it. If anyone has a better way I'm all ears, but I highly doubt it will show anything different.
Like others have commented I very much like the work environment in the US, and like my work. But for many, and probably most workers in the US life is very hard, especially when compared to wealthy countries.
The thing is, you need money(a strong industry and a strong market economy) to afford to give your workers all these perks. If you just write them down as laws, many investors will simply avoid setting up shop in your country, meaning the workers in those countries might have good perks on paper but they'll have to settle with much lower wages because of the much fewer opportunities available to them.
(also: not bombing yourself to rubble twice during the XX helped more than one country on this list)
- Zero checks and balances against monopolies allows them to grow even larger without any stops in check
- Both previous factors makes GDP skyrocket, while inequality grows bigger too
Due to lack of political will / influence by pro-gun organizations, US proudly leads the world in the number of mass shootings too, so it's not just the best when it comes to MORE MONEY, but also more bullets :)
This has many advantages but also disadvantages, such as individuals and businesses being sociopathic in the pursuit of profit.
I'm a Turkish immigrant who's been living in Germany since more than a third of my life. While more back in Istanbul, I see individuals and businesses behaving like this everywhere. I've only been once to the US (loved the NYC and Chicago - crazy), so my exposure is plainly touristic, is this really so bad there to make it a clear disadvantage?
Can someone who has personal experience in both sides of the world care to make a best attempt for a neutral comparison?