Unemployment in parts of Europe is higher, but it's offset by more robust social safety nets (healthcare, etc). The culture (or, should I say, cult) of property ownership is not as developed as in the US, so living your entire life in a rental flat is perfectly OK. Look on the bright side, at least neither Germany nor France had a housing bubble.
That's why my aunt is obsessed with keeping her business "under the radar" - including no bank accounts in Russia.
It's not that the Europeans are less innovative as a people. It's just that government is so big and the laws governing commerce so draconian and taxes so high, it's not worth the time and energy to become an entrepreneur in most cases. Maybe that changes the culture over time, but I've found that people are basically the same all over the world. If Europeans had less government dictating their lives, they would be much more productive.
Well, everything is different, it's not better or worse: I'm a Belgian living in Brussels, which is a good average of the EU life in general. The average employee makes 4000 gross a month, 50% of which desappears in taxes. This includes legal pension scheme. 2000euros are available for expenses and savings. But you can do a lot with that: a 2 bedrooms appartment rents for 850/month, that is not cheap, but ok for a couple. A restaurant for 2 is 30 euros, a beer is 2 euros, an ice cream 1,5euros, metro ticket 1,5euros. Medical expenses?Here is a BIG difference: I pay something like 300 a year, and my close to 70yo parents maybe 1500 each.Quality is among the best on the globe, life expectancy really high. The legal pension of educated people like my dad is around 2200 euros. Unemployment benefits are (too) high: 1000euros on average, easily more if you have kids. Some people don't ever bother working, which isn't good at all. This has to be improved. Company's profit tax rate is 34%. Then, another 25% of what the company want to pay the self employed person running it. That's a lot of taxes. IN THE END,IT'S LIKE A RISK/RETURN RATIO: YOU HAVE MUCH LESS CHANCE BECOMING VERY RICH IN EUROPE, BUT MUCH LESS CHANCE BECOMING VERY POOR ON THE OTHER HAND. ON A MACRO PERSPECTIVE, ALL THESE TAXES JUST SMOOTH THE CURVE.
The problem, of course, is when you have a great business, some folks show up at your door with "legal" documents that say they now own your business and you're on the street and there's nothing you can do about it. -------------------------- In the US, this is referred to as a union.
true, but guess what, many europeans work for these companies in the US. So yes, Microsoft takes the credit for things that Eastern Europeans and Indians had spent hours working on.