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Comment by lukeramsden | Hacker News Reader

Can start with the number of unicorns in USA vs Europe, especially when you take population in to account https://www.failory.com/unicorns

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That isn't a concrete example of a regulations that hinder innovation.

What do you think the cause is? Unwashed eggs?

any number of reasons: language barriers, existing American firms anti-competing, smaller domestic markets, less centralisation, and, yes, in some cases, regulation, but, when it comes down to it, it's better to have smaller firms that don't (or less frequently) damage society than larger firms than do, even just from the perspective of wealth distribution.

> it's better to have smaller firms that don't (or less frequently) damage society

I'm not sure about that - I really like my lifestyle which would be nearly impossible to attain in Europe, but is very attainable for Americans.

I don't see how you're materially better off because you're forced to use foreign companies (Google, Facebook, etc.) instead of having your own.

What are you talking about? I am unable to follow your reasoning, maybe you can walk us through?

I think he's saying that, yes, this regulation means that your own companies are more ethical, but European consumers end up using these less-regulated American companies anyway. this is true, but this problem has started to be solved by the EU anyway, for example, with the Digital Markets and Services Acts

Why are you asking me? And what does 'Unicorns' have to do with innovation anyway?

How many of those unicorns are financial black holes never expecting to turn a profit?

And the inclusion of so many cryptocurrency "unicorns" in that list is also quite telling.

So Estonia is better than the US?

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