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Comment by skreech | Hacker News Reader

Article is ridden with errors, mostly based on a faulty premise. Europe is not a country. Europe isn't even the EU.

Laws, regulations, attitudes and tax rates vary widely. If you want to do a startup in Europe, choose a country first and then read up.

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There definitely are a lot of generalizations in the article but there also are a lot of valid points.

It is pretty insightful to see how a seasoned American Entrepreneur perceives Europe and the obstacles that can be found here. Not necessarily every obstacle applies everywhere. Some countries might even have different things hindering their competitiveness than those outlined by the article. But it definitely isn't all peachy for businesses over here (or there).

This article does provide a kind of road map on how Europe could improve its business environment. If it wants to is a completely different question.

What's worse, were it gets specific on country and regulation, it still gets it wrong, seemingly deliberate.

It's a political anti-regulation rant. Nothing more.

Indeed, this article really ought to refer to Western Europe rather than Europe as a whole, and even then there are far too many generalizations.

Yes. I am European, working as a contractor in my own limited company, and am not in a position to speak out for the busines climate in all of Europe. I can say how taxes, pensions and health care works in Sweden, but going beyond that, I would mostly be speculating.

I would tend to agree: one of the biggest mistakes he makes is assuming EU wide directives are applied equally. The UK, for example, negotiated a clause meaning employers can have employees opt-out of the working time directive (which governs the number of hours in a week employees can work).

UK employees can opt out of part of the working time directive, the 48 hrs max working week ban. But other parts still apply, like minimum holidays per year

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