[mtrimpe]

I'm not sure Paul actually even meant that; but in my mind the difference is pretty simple:

The US is set up to achieve the maximum amount of runaway breakout successes at the expense of average of quality of life.

The EU is set up to achieve the maximum amount of reasonably sustainable business providing for a decent quality of life.

Each type of business is much easier to start on the respective continent.

[paulbaumgart]

That's a great point. Domestic market size and access to capital don't matter much for starting a business where the end-goal is single-digit millions in annual revenue. The USA is quite obviously (to me, at least) the best place to "do a startup" but there could well be better places to "start a median small business."

For the record, the discussion started with VKontakte, which is definitely not in the "median small business" category.

And let's not get started on the different possible definitions of "quality of life" ;)

[mtrimpe]

> there could well be better places to "start a median small business."

In Germany, which is the prime example of the EU model in that sense, there is even a word for that kind of business: Mittelstand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand)

> And let's not get started on the different possible definitions of "quality of life" ;)

Good point; the EU definition would probably be having a roof over your head and ample free time to enjoy the bread and games in good health ;)