The US might be the best place to start a world-conquering multinational like Google or Facebook, but it's not the best place to live for general social mobility or for starting a small business. Small business startups play a lesser role in our economy than other Western European countries. (https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/think-w...)

The entrepreneurship rate has been declining in the US for the past few decades. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/201..., https://www.inc.com/magazine/201505/leigh-buchanan/the-vanis...)

This is provably false. It is incredibly hard to create a small business in western Europe. Capital borrowing is difficult, employee staffing is onerous, and local officials make sure that larger established companies compete more strongly in their areas.

That Atlantic article is both antiquated, and cherry picks data just after the 2008 crisis.

The social policy advantages in Nordic nations and Western Europe today vastly outweigh those in the US. Growing up in the US, I was lucky my parents had good jobs and pushed me to learn and grow. If I did not have their support (and healthcare) I would not have survived college or medical issues at that time, some of which are ongoing today. I'm extremely lucky to have an advanced education, be healthy, and be less than 10k in debt 5 years after graduating. That's entirely due to my parents funding my education and medical bills best they could through that period as well as the insanely good benefits from my current position.

If I was born into a Nordic nation I think I'd have been better off. I'd have had the same supportive parents but no burden from education and medical debts, or stress of finding a position with good benefits before turning 26. I might even be freelancing or building my own company right now without fear of paying for prescriptions out of pocket for me and my SO which would be significantly more costly than our rent.

The US is a great country for opportunity but it is not a place of equal opportunity.

But in his thought experiment what you're trying to avoid is being massively disadvantaged by where you were born.

If you're born in Scandinavia you'll have very good education and healthcare no matter what family you're born into. Maybe starting a business is harder, so what? You can move to the US later in life if that's your goal, you'll still be better off by having no student debt.

In the past this was a murkier trade-off as the cost of immigration vs the cost of student loans was much closer.

Nowadays, however, I'd say that it's possibly the better route to take from a debt standpoint, but there is still the reality that being able to move to the US (or most other countries) is not a guarantee normally.