Sweden Is a Tech Superstar from the North

Compared to Sweden and the other Nordic countries, or even most of Europe, I'm not sure I'd consider the US a welfare state. You need (a lot of) money to fare well in the US. In Sweden education and healthcare is free(1). If you have good enough grades, no matter your background/wealth, you can go to the best universities in the country. The government will even pay you a little for doing so. We have 400 days of (combined) parental leave/child and putting your kids in kindergarten is heavily subsidized (for two kids the maximum amount is $150/month, if your combined salary is below a certain threshold you pay less). Besides you are never(2) expected to work more than 8hrs/day 5days/week and have a legal right to at least 5 weeks of vacation per year.

I think these are very important factors because it allows for both having a healthy work/family life as well as both parents working full-time(3).

(1) There is a minor fee for seeing a doctor but that's just to keep imaginary sick people from going every day.

(2) For reasonable companies, which if you want to be if you're gonna keep well-educated employees around.

(3) Or nearly so, if you have children under 8yrs you are legally allowed to work anywhere between 75%-100% which many parents do. Of course you can probably cut a deal with you employer even if you don't have kids, but then it's up to the goodwill of said employer.

Finland and Sweden make the perfect natural experiment: one entered the Euro and can't set their own interest rates, the other did not.

I don't think Finlands welfare state is the cause of stagnation, but they will have to cut it none the less. Finlands slump grew into a depression mostly because they are tied to the same interest rates as a number of other countries, which is the great failure of the Euro experiment.

IIRC the US is a freewheeling capitalist state among developed, non-tiny countries. I mean, there's still substantial social welfare, but it's significantly smaller than most of our compatriots.

http://norden.statbank.dk/statbank5a/temp/gr28012016_1_dscha...

My point is, when a company moves locations and then becomes wildly successful, one should wonder why its birthplace can't create that success instead of patting it on its back.

Usually there will be a large sales organization in the US, and often later there might be R&D there as well since that offers access to particular talent etc. But I actually find that quite a lot of American seem willing to move to Norway to work, so it is not always needed.

I guess many nordic companies might look American to outsiders because a lot of nordics have gone to business schools in the US, lived or worked there for a few years before etc. When people here are used to other business cultures I think it is usually American business culture they are used to.