The country is one of the biggest cereal producer of EU, a major car industry player and has big reserves of oil and gas.
Anecdotally, since turism/horeca services is really a minor part of the GDP, the COVID-19 will not affect it too much. Whereas in West going out is a major activity and has much influence.
That's a fair difference in available disposable income!
(Having said that, I've worked with some Romania developers and they were great. I'd hire there, but there are better markets to sell into)
But, yes point taken, there is of course a difference. Corruption is a main point. Also due to the gray or black economy I suspect that the above $8100 are likely double.
One example: The UK is a reasonably wealthy country. Median household income in the UK is 29,400 GBP (36,000 USD). The poorest state in the US (Mississippi) has a median household income around 43,000 USD
This applies doubly for high-paying jobs (devs in wealthy parts of the US make 2-4x+ what they would in wealthy parts of Europe).
I switched to working remotely for a US company a couple years ago, and while I used to have a "sure why not chat" policy with local headhunters I don't even bother anymore because the offers they can come up with are astonishingly low compared to my already-below-market-for-the-US wage.
That being said, at the low end of the job market (minimum wage or close to it) people can make more here than in the US, and with paid vacation and healthcare to boot, and there's less inequality as a whole, but the fact remains if you're trying to sell something there's less money to chase.
Sure, healthcare is no-cost, you get a month or more of vacation a year even if you're in low-paid work (if it's full time), and quality of life is better in many respects, but once you get away from the nordics, really, there's just a lot less money about.
Also, lack of a common language is still an issue (How many versions of komplett.no needed to be translated?), and not just for sites, but for support, logistics, etc.
If you send physical products Europe is expensive to ship in. I can send stuff to the US cheaper than some of Europe (though customs applies, of course)
I'm in Europe, and would like to start a company, and even I would be using my local market primarily for testing and then focus on the US. On the bright side, devs are a hell of a lot cheaper here.
The main problem is that you need to appear personally, otherwise it's not such a big deal I find.
With Germany being in the EU, you can also incorporate in whatever EU country you want. The UK is obviously out for now, but take Estonia for example. Makes taxes a lot more complex for the company, but much less so when compared to YCs way of transforming into a US Inc. with a German / EU local entity. Especially when there are now US based operations.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with sticking to one market. Not the last reason being to avoid the above mentioned entanglements.
The incorporation of my company in germany, including documentation, notary fees and registration, cost me less than 1.000 € and took 7 days from notary to registration. VAT registration took almost 5 weeks, so. But that was independent from the legal entity.
Germany doesn’t kind of require a layer. You actually need a lawyer. In the Anglosphere you would be wise to procure the services of a lawyer if you’re doing anything remotely out of the ordinary and dealing with lots of money but if not you can set up an LLC or Ltd. or some other standard corporate structure using off the shelf documentation and b filling in the appropriate blanks yourself.