Don't confuse the fact that, during startup, a business used available public funding as just another available opportunity to leverage, vs a business that never would have started/survived without public funding.
Apple received early stage funding from the SBIC programme: http://www.sbia.org/?page=sbic_program_history
And, more importantly, many of the technologies used by Apple right from the first computers to the iphones were developed with government funding and used free of charge: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/10/24/t-iphone-go...
And I am not even talking about the later government subsidies from American states and from Ireland in the form of massive tax breaks. Nokia didn't get away with paying a 2 percent tax on its European profits (but probably received other government funding themselves along the way).
Similarly, the Google founders' work on the pagerank algorithms on Stanford was funded by a government entity, the National Science Foundation, and they were allowed to use it commercially free of charge. And Google too, has received massive tax breaks.
The Steves were highly motivated; lack of government funding likely would not have stopped Apple from existing much as we know it now.
Just because a party was involved doesn't make 'em indispensable.
No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly.
Skype is a nice example, but is one of fewer companies like that.
> Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding
Are you sure? A lot of SV companies have had public funding but I'm not sure about them.
"Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing""
Well, this happens pretty much everywhere, even in 3rd world countries (sure, in a much smaller quantity). Social mobility is important, but a comfortable life in a comfy job may also be a prison (better than going through difficulties, sure)
Not really, atleast from my experiences. Almost the complete youth & young adults atleast use Facebook and a considerable amount Twitter (more Twitter user, the older they get). Older adults and eldery only use FB/Twitter partially (I'd say 20%) and realtively inactive
Though, yes, in Germany - on average - Facebook & Twitter are less used, mostly because of privacy reasons
Among younger (20-30) Germans, I think almost everybody is on FB (and even more are on What's App).
But for a while Germany had StudiVZ and MeinVZ. After a while FB became more popular, people with some international friends joined at first, and after a while everyone else did and the other networks basically starved. It was sad to watch, especially since many (local) groups there and parts of the UI were IMHO much nicer than what's on FB today.
Skype started in Europe (Swedish/Danish co-founders, Estonian devs, offices in London, company in Luxembourg). No "committe/government/consensus" there.
Also, Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding.
Finally, many European countries rank higher than the US when it comes to social mobility. Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing" (or at least from a quiet European middle class background)? I think so.