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Comment by ilrwbwrkhv | Hacker News Reader

and that is why europe is so much poorer than us. we really let people dream big, fail and dream big again here and that is amazing.

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I'd say that not having two world wars on your soil also helps.

It does, but the European and American economy have really diverged in the last 25 years. 25 years ago economies like Germany, Netherlands etc. were pretty much on par with the US economy (on per capita basis), which is not true anymore. And there wasn't a world war on European soil in the past 25 years.

I would blame: - Mishandling the financial crises after 2008 (austerity measures) - Aging population (low birthrate + not enough immigrants) - Internet businesses really have an advantage in markets that are mono-lingual and most growth came from the internet in the past 25 years. - The EU exists, but the market is still very fragmented.

It's true, the US had to go civilize Europe twice. America is using a lighter hand this time, but that is also because America is relatively weaker now. If Europe needs the US to come civilize it a third time, I think it might not happen. They will simply descend into the barbarism of the great wars without America to come quell them into civilization.

That is one of the most "arrogant asshole" comments I've seen here on HN.

Truth is truth, no matter the tone it is given in.

Truth is truth, but that was not truth. Just saying it was does nothing.

You need to get out of your bubble more often. Wealth does not equal being civilized.

> the US had to go civilize Europe twice.

the first time the US got dragged screaming and kicking into the war... And the second time, they might have sat most of the conflict in Europe if they hadn't gotten war declared on them by Hitler

Easy to dream big when you personally have billions of dollars. Normal people in the US aren't dreaming big or able to fail and take risks. If anything Europe has tons of social safety nets for people to make risky choices.

I have several friends that immigrated from Europe, and they've all made comments about their respective countries that suggest that's not really the case in practice.

Sounds great in theory, but in practice we observe the opposite. Turns out having an bigger reward for taking a risk is a better motivator than having a softer cushion to land on if you fail...

You're both right. Having bigger risk/reward spread leads to more success cases and more broken people who risked everything and failed.

Exactly. You remove the ceiling, but also the floor.

That benefit only exists for the already rich that can tolerate that risk. Who comes from actual modest beginnings and started a company that became successful recently?

Here were talking Elon who was already wealthy and managed to fail upward after making money getting fired from one of the first companies he was involved in.

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