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.
- 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).