News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by zmmmmm on Saturday November 29, 2025 @04:57PM (#46091174)
you can extend that to all Silicon Valley and the US in general.

It has one of the weakest social security systems. Not even proper healthcare is guaranteed. Yet it out innovates all of Europe, Canada, Australia, other places that have incredible social "safety nets".

I agree with the other commenter: safety nets and multiple tries are always good to have, but persistence and grit are even more important, and these come more from necessity.

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by exceptione on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:23PM (#46091366)
> Yet it out innovates all of Europe, Canada, Australia, other places that have incredible social "safety nets".

Probability: highly unlikely.

Speaking for Europe, I see a lot of silent innovation. No press, no LinkedIn posts, not an article on their website. There are a lot of US firms that shop in Europe for high tech. (I know of instances were the US company buys the IP from the EU supplier + take public credit for it + forbids the supplier for showcasing their success in public.)

What is different is:

1) the amount of money available in the US. The US enjoyed a very beneficial position post-WOII, enabling them to run high deficits.

2) the US has a positive attitude to entrepreneurship. You are not a failure when your company goes bankrupt, you learn from it and you go-go-go.

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by enaaem on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:34PM (#46091434)
Also the EU lacks a unified capital market where infinite VC money can be pooled together into any new hype. I would argue this the biggest reason.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by userulluipeste on Saturday November 29, 2025 @07:36PM (#46092298)
EU countries also have very high tax rates, which feels like the community is the primary beneficiary of your business, not you the entrepreneur. This alone severely reduces the financial incentive of starting a business. There's also some weird cultural stigma in the EU's more socialist countries (like France), where the system is way more comfortable for you as an employee rather than a risk taker. Let's call a spade a spade.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by enaaem on Saturday November 29, 2025 @09:50PM (#46093139)
The way you say it, it sounds like the EU shouldn’t have any companies at all, but that is not true. In fact, the EU is very good at boring tech, which is the reason why the US is imposing high tariffs.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by jryle70 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @07:49PM (#46092392)
What is silent innovation? Do you think there are no silent innovation in the US?
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by lanfeust6 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @06:15PM (#46091738)
Productivity is lacking in those other countries. That said, I don't think it has to do with safety net, which is not much different in the U.S.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by raw_anon_1111 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:19PM (#46091340)
You can have all of the “grit” you want to and still fail. You just never hear about the failures.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by lordnacho on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:13PM (#46091286)
Most of the US graduates have their degree and a network to fall back on. It's nice to have actual money in the bank, but it can also be acceptable to have a high chance of getting a rewarding job if the moonshot doesn't work.

In other words, human capital.

Most of the entrepreneurs I meet are not going to be homeless if things don't work out. They'll be employed.

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by raw_anon_1111 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:21PM (#46091356)
Exactly this many also have parents who can help subsidize them, stay on their parents health insurance until they are 26 and worse case move back home. This isn’t just the privilege rich, this can also be your mid to mid upper income couple who can help their kids out.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by lordnacho on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:33PM (#46091427)
Yep, and most of these fallbacks are insurance-like: you can always say you never asked your parents for anything. Like me. Thing worked out, so I didn't need their money. But if they hadn't, I would have a place to sleep and eat.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by userulluipeste on Saturday November 29, 2025 @07:56PM (#46092425)
"But if they hadn't, I would have a place to sleep and eat."

Forgive me for asking, but (if it's acceptable to reduce it to that) isn't joining the army or something gets one covered? The army service would come with the added bonus of not letting you go soft in perseverance and risk taking areas.

/sarcasm

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by bequanna on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:04PM (#46091220)
> Not even proper healthcare is guaranteed.

…except it is. Health insurance is available on a sliding scale based on income and essentially free for most low income people.

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by agf on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:29PM (#46091404)
In some areas and for some people, Medicaid probably does count as proper healthcare. But it certainly doesn't for other people / other places. Imagine there being one doctor within a multi-million person metro area who takes Medicaid for some sub-specialty. 90 minutes away from you by car. And you don't have a car. This is the reality for millions of Medicaid recipients, including ones I know personally in Chicago.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by raw_anon_1111 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @06:16PM (#46091745)
Not Medicaid, subsidized ACA. I know a lot of young healthy people that just take the chance of not having health care. Worse case you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip if you have to go the emergency room.

I don’t think my older (step)son has had insurance since he got off our plan at 26 over two years ago.

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by nradov on Saturday November 29, 2025 @05:23PM (#46091369)
Sure, although in some areas healthcare is effectively unavailable to Medicaid plan members because providers have stopped accepting those patients. Being insured doesn't mean much if you can't schedule an appointment.

https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicaid-insurers-doct...

Re:All it takes is for one to work out by watwut on Sunday November 30, 2025 @02:56AM (#46094742)
Europe innovates. What it creates less are large monopolies. What America creates much more then Europe is winner takes all markets with little competition and large powerful companies on top.
Re:All it takes is for one to work out by ericmcer on Sunday November 30, 2025 @01:45PM (#46099220)
Necessity is too fallible though, if Bezos was driven by necessity he would have sold Amazon in 1996 and retired.

That level of success requires either just pure psychopathic drive or some kind of deep anger that forces you to keep proving yourself again and again.

Beyond the lack of safety nets, etc., we just have a culture in the USA where you continually have to compete to prove your value as an individual.

There was some story I read where Farmers wanted to get immigrant laborers to work longer hours, so they offered a temporarily increased hourly rate. Like for the next month we pay $5/hr instead of just $3. The thought was workers would work like mad to hoard as much of the increased rate as they could. The opposite happened, they started working less because they just wanted $X/month and then to relax the rest of the time. That always stood out to me as a stark example that our American psychology is not at all universal, and is kind of perverted in certain lights.