How Did Europe Fall So Far Behind? (In Tech)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- Europe is often described as one of the most developed regions in the world. In fact, it’s often even pointed to as the gold standard for various systems whether it be schooling or welfare, but there is one notable sector in which Europe has consistently been following behind: tech. Europe only has a few notable tech companies in the Fortune 500 while the rest of the list is dominated by American and Chinese tech companies. But, not only does Europe not have any mega-cap tech companies but they’re also being paid far less for the same positions almost like a second-world country. On average, European engineers are only paid about half as much as American engineers, and when we peel back the layers it’s not surprising why. In general, Europeans tend to have much more life balance meaning that companies can get far less productivity from each employee. Not to mention, Europeans aren’t necessarily always chasing the maximum compensation or title like their American counterparts. This video explains the various reasons why European tech workers are paid substantially less and how Europe got left so far behind.
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0:00 - The State Of Europe
2:03 - The Disparity Visualized
5:41 - European Culture
9:11 - Contentment
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There are many explanations, but I think there are two main points:
1. The amount of risk-willing capital in Europe is significantly less than in the US. All startups are dependent on a huge influx of capital to subsidise development, lower price-setting, and start-up costs. There is simply much more of it in the US.
2. Culture is a big part of it. Some Americans will consider European people lazy, but it is simply that they are just not as hungry for huge success than Americans. Many Europeans don't dream of the big house and fancy car. They want more time-off.
time and family time is the real wealth.
@@TheBlackManMythLegenduntil those same people come crying begging for money or gov ride offs 🙄
@@TheBlackManMythLegend Ethiopia will be ecstatic to hear this. Hungry, but ecstatic.
They also don't need as much money for a high standard of living because education is cheap, healthcare is cheap, no need to have two cars because transit is good, and no expectation to buy a big suburb property
@@yogsothoth00 "Education is cheap" is your answer to the question "why is america so much more innovative and successful in tech than countries in europe" -_-
I came from a Third world country and now living in Europe as a software engineer and your study and conclusion is accurate.
Reasons I see Europe not doing better in tech is:
- the strict regulations they have here, especially about users data and company practices
- the slow living. They just want to enjoy life at the fullest and have virtually no desire to compete with the US with just a salary.
At some point, I wanted to migrate to the US until I found out there's more to life than money. lol. And with what you have in Europe, you generally can do most of the things you want and go anywhere in the world anyway. And I have more free time for my leisure activities, so these really matter
makes sense. After all, what's the point of raking in money and creating all this tech if it doesn't meaningfully make life better?
USA! USA! USA! USA!
@@rishabhanand4973 except that in the long run we (U.S) don't depend on you guys (assuming you are in Europe) for tech and protection, hence your governments are subordinate to our's which in turn are subordinate to big Corp leaving you guys one step further removed sovereignty.
In short you guys are like the little pig building a house of straws which works all too well until the big bad wolf comes to blow it all away
USA e getta
Try to buy house and build equity in Europe
One thing I've noticed is that Europe often has a huge influence on tech in ways you might not expect. A lot of the changes tech companies make when it comes to their products or how they run their business comes about because of rulings in European courts when it comes to consumer privacy laws (which Europe takes much more seriously than the U.S.), or things such as requiring standardization of technology. Apple moving away from the lightning cable is, if I'm remembering correctly, a direct result of a ruling in Europe which said their had to be a standardized charging method among phones.
They were going to switch to USB C, Europe just accelerated it
Yup.
@@good-tn9srnah, Apple don't give a shit about their customers.
Great memory you have there!
Yep this is true but it also could be argued that apple just didn’t want to invest in the R&D to make separate SKUs for different countries. If apple really saw the incentive to have separate SKUs they would’ve done it.
I kinda agree, Software Engineer in London, it's true we earn less, but London is an outlier in the UK. There was recently an FT article showing that if you scooped out London per capita we'd be poorer than every US state. Which brings me to my point if you earn over a £100k (around the $130k) there is an impression that you are rich and if you didn't live in London you'd probably have a very good standard of living. We tax people at 60% between £100-125k which kills the incentive to earn more than £100k.
You're point that we should feel annoyed that we're exploited by big US tech, I don't agree, our productivity is bad because we don't invest enough in our workers. If foreign companies can see the benefit, I'm glad someone does! Where it does annoy me is ARM and DeepMind, they are two amazing companies we failed to nurture and keep.
Your main point about Europe being far behind undeniable. The implications atm are just that we are poorer, in the long term they are more concerning.
60% tax over $100k is crazy. How can you afford to buy a house like that?
@@fark69 Assuming you can find the money for a deposit, you can borrow 5x your earnings and get a 35 year or interest only mortgage. In London it's common to spend half your income on housing. It all sounds crazy and it is, but people have made more out of owning a home than their job (you pay no tax on the appreciation of your main residence). I'd like to say they can't keep going up, but we had over a million migrants to the UK last year and we built about 200k new homes. I'm not betting against it.
@@fark69 I should mention it goes down to 40% over 125k. 60% is a quirk of the fact everyone can earn 12k without paying any tax, but at 100k they start taking away that allowance by the time you get to 125k there is nothing left to take
Besides big metro areas, housing isn´t that expensive, the problem is salaries are too low but you can solve that by imigrating to higher paying eu countries , you only need 10% downpayment, 30-40 years loans but interest rates are high right now, nowadays the market is hot because of migrants both rich and poor and a low supply of new housing since the fc, my country is somewhat lucky to have a 80% homeownership rate, in my city for example i can buy a small rundown house for 20-30k euros although further from the city or a small ok house for 80k, when the wealth tranfer from old people to young people will happen in the next 30-40 some are going to be house rich,
Tax over 81.199€ is 48% but we have a progressive tax.
@weird-guy I don't know where you have in mind in the EU. I don't know a lot of places. The ones I do know Berlin, Amsterdam, or Dublin are very expensive. Ultimately, if I wanted to earn a lot of money, I'd head for America, or if I had no moral quarms, maybe the Middle East. Which gets at the videos point it's not all about money, but the cost of living is getting worse, and at some point, people will vote with their feet.
Beyond high paying jobs, tech often dictates what you can do; it's much more difficult if not impossible to make it work differently than what it was designed for, and this will become a constant uphill struggle. US origin tech exerts a cultural influence. This mismatch puts nontech leading countries at a disadvantage.
beside that, is Europe really behind US?? Musk chose the US bcz taxes, why are most billionaires in the US?? And when it comes to technology they are not behind the US, from CERN to the JWST Instruments, made in Europe, not to mention cars and other tech sector! yes you hear google, facebook, intel, that's it, but from cars to electronics to planes and more, the US is far behind. More and more Americans are living the US, so they need to spread how far behind Europe is!
It is hard to take material seriously after witnessing the map 0:47... what the hell happened there?
I think it’s a map of the largest land border with another country.
Yeah, that was weird. A Brazilian flag inside Europe, and the Irish flag over UK and the British flag over Ireland.
Lmao seriously. TH-cam is becoming such garbage.
Just use your imagination. This could be a map of the destination of the inhabitans vacation. Most Swedes go to Norway and vice versa, Austrians make there vaccation in Germany and so on.
@@nowtronix8996 doesn't matter what the map is or isn't, it has absolutely nothing to do with the video
As an American in Germany working in tech i can pretty confidently say that these salary comparisons really miss the mark by only comparing salary numbers. The advantage of living in Europe is that we simply have qualitative options that are simply not available in the US.
I live in one of the more expensive regions of Germany and I have the option for cheap affordable housing for $400 a month and a car free lifestyle and a bus ticket is $50.
The city is completely safe, almost no crime. I work 100% remote. Get 6 weeks paid vacation a year plus sick leave is really easy to take.
I easily save 2/3rds of my net salary.
In the US I simply could not do that. I was lucky if i could save 10% despite making more.
If the US jobs are so lucrative then why does nobody in the US save anything? Because you don't have the options.
Then again i take all the money i make and invest it in the US because the stock market here returns like 2% per year. But i think ya'll are getting ripped off. Americans all work their asses off so Chinese and Europeans can save all their money and get rich off your backs with your capital markets while we take it easy😅.
I dunno man, working at a tech company in the USA is another level. $300K + a year, double that for couples working in tech. Many of the big tech companies have unlimited PTO as well. Still manage to max out all HSA/401K/Backdoor Roth IRA/ Mega Backdoor Roth/HSA with lots of money left over.
EU people with the same job are making less, but live in cities with better stats. I’ll deal with crime and some homeless people for 600K/year USD household income from a desk job.
@@graycat117 are you making 600k a year?
@@ethanswistak2943 yes, many dual income couples in tech on the west coast of the USA are doing the same.
@@graycat117 Except £300k isn't close to the average salary for tech jobs in the USA...
@@GonzoTehGreat If you’re mid career, upper level of senior, principal or lead at one of the big tech companies, that’s a normal total compensation (salary + bonus + equity) on the west coast or northeast.
Residing in London, I acknowledge that I lack expertise and the age to speak definitively from experience. In my view, perhaps the absence of technical universities akin to those in America and the generally conservative culture in England, coupled with a lower risk appetite, contribute to a contrasting entrepreneurial landscape. Unlike the American ethos, where success is fervently celebrated, England tends to adopt a more cautious approach, reflecting in a "go big or go home" mindset prevalent in the United States. This dichotomy results in America boasting both the most successful enterprises and, unfortunately, the most significant instances of fraud. I believe the distinctiveness of the American culture, with its unique celebration of success, is challenging to replicate elsewhere.
Yeah, culture definitely plays a massive role
@@LogicallyAnsweredit really does and I wish you would've gone into that more, including the possible history and psychology behind it
@@Iloona974 he's gay. He would never focus on main thing. Beating around the bush is his hobby
@@Blahh6789??
@@Iloona974he kind of did go into it though. The last part of the video he showed how Europeans are more about wanting stability and are okay sacrificing a chance to make it big for that
Where did you get the image of Europe at 0:48 from? It's hillarious 😂
Brasil 😭😭💀
Not just in terms of technology but also economically and militarily. I think this is attributed to the significant bureaucracy in the EU and a perceived lack of innovation. While Europe has established AI regulations, there is a notable absence of European AI technologies or inventions for testing, and they rely on the American internet. In contrast to China, which has its own internet/payment systems like Alipay and UnionPay, Europe leans on various military bases across the continent and is dependent on American Swift systems and credit cards.
exactly
Europe is freaking small in size (don't use Mercator map, it's wrong).
And population don't wanna work hard like asians.
And they don't wanna accept immigrants either
let's change the banking system so american tourist complain that they can't use their credit cards
I generally agree but you brought a very bad example: SWIFT is a Belgian system not American.
Also, there are online payments system in Europe, for example in Poland we have Blik.
2:35 You can't really make a direct comparison by wages between countries like that. In the US healthcare is not free, you need to pay a substantial amount of your income for insurance. Also, the cost of living is higher in the US. Some countries have higher hidden taxes for payroll which are not accounted for in your visuals, even though those taxes provide benefits for the public. As well as paid vacation for 5 weeks, paid paternal leave etc. Wages in all sectors are generally higher in the US because of those reasons. It's unfair to make these comparisons without full context.
Fair enough, mentioned a lot of that later in the video :)
You didn't watch the full video, did you?
I think in the long turn benefit and quality of live … Europeans tend to be happier than Americans … I live in America and have a brother and a cousin in Europe … they don’t even consider living their jobs to return to the US
You're making huge generalizations and assumptions.
US people are basically in debt all the time.
A peaceful life, happier life is faar better
It's perfect this way. Europe is a giant market with power to regulate these corporations, and so their laws are pro-users, pro-consumers, which kind of elevate the standards for the rest of the world sometimes. This is actually a great, great thing. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries have their claws in the EU, and that's bad for everyone. Imagine if the pharmaceuticals were also foreign, with no influence over Europe. We could be talking about millions upon millions of lives saved.
Where did you get the idea that the pharmaceutical and chemical industries have their claws in the EU?
@@valentijnrozeveld3773 Lobbying, and the fact that there's interchange between being employed at the European regulatory agency, then pharma, then back to the regulatory agency. It's a can of worms, I suppose best way to start it's looking at antipsychotics, how they can interact with one another, and their *many* prescribed off label uses. You probably know someone who takes one antipsychotic or another despite not suffering from anything that remotely resembles psychosis (could be anxiety, mild insomnia, depression, eating disorders, etc), and you'll be surprised by the amount of high profile drugs that are or were originally created as antipsychotics.
@@juliankohler5086 I just know that in the Netherlands you get prescribed paracetemol for everything. 😂
damn right. Europe is the only defender of the world from a dystopian future where corps can trample over laws and lives as much as they want with zero consequence
@@valentijnrozeveld3773Nothing is perfect.
It's not really about Europe's capacity when it comes to tech, just look at ASML, or all the big game studios in Europe. There just isn't as big of an inclination in that direction as there is in USA, and that is probably because there's no such place as silicon valley in Europe, where you have all these billionaires investing in startups. I bet if you just take silicon valley out of the equation, suddenly things would be a lot more equal.
But why isn’t there a Silicon Valley equivalent?
The thing is a place like SF appeared because of the US's direction in tech, not the other way round. Take Shenzhen in China , electronics + manufacturing became a thing then Shenzhen became the one place to embody it. Take away Shenzhen and another one somewhere in China will pop up.
Same principle, take out big companies and new ones will replace them. Will the something happen in Europe when SAP is out? See the kind of Google Analytics replacements that popped when some countries in the EU got involve and its just a tool.
To be clear its not about skill, Europe just doesn't do tech the same way America does it.
new silicon valley is the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands
@@JustMe-sh8nd hahaha. Riiiight.
@@codycast The Netherlands is actually ahead in many tech industries.
what the hell happened to the map at 0:45? did i miss out on something?
exactly
It is a map showing with witch country a European country share the most land border (Portugal with Spain, France with Brazil through French Guiana, ...)
Because EU companies are private companies and not publicly traded 🙃
Talking about Technology not Others
Even Private Tech Companies knows Globally
I am european and the biggest problem currently (since the EU set up the privacy rights GDPR) we are falling behind very badly on terms of AI. We will never catch up. I think Arabia, India and China will or already have surpassed us. A lot of tech startups leave Europe nowadays. They head to Dubai or America. Even the biggest DAX (stock market) player in Europe left Germany and went to NYC. This is because politics especially in Germany is actively destroying the economy. Basically all Europe countries are falling behind very badly. In 20 years we will have 3rd world standards. We will be just a huge consumer market. Where is the inflation act in EU? Nothing like this is happening. Germany currently has a hole of 63 trillion Euros and cancelled development support for tech.
BTW: in Europe you have to take your vacation otherwise your boss needs to pay you compansation. This means you get forced to take the obligatory vacations.
If you are German you could simply walk over the border to the Netherlands which is very technological advanced.
@@valentijnrozeveld3773 yes, but I am afraid that's they do not care about privacy policy and GDPR at all
Arabia, India? No
China? Absolutely
80% of this video is about salaries. But there is no explanation of what salaries have to do with falling behind in tech.
Right. Nothing about the legal/regulatory landscape differences between the US and EU (and the individual member county’s regulations).
This video is only about salaries. If you will look at tech implementation in everyday life, it's quite opposite situation. USA is extremally behind EU and China.
You are right...
This is very single, The problem is bureaucracy in most European countries is quite analogue, .. for me salary isn't the major issues
You should not forget that the EU is made up of 27 different nations, many with completely different histories, cultures and attitudes. It makes a huge difference when you're trying to scale a software company.
Two other factors are: Smaller TAM: When scaling a company in the US, your immediately have access to 340 million consumers. In the EU, you need to contend with dozens of languages, legal frame works and attitudes.
VC pockets: While VC funds like Sequioa have deep pockets and can fund a startup for a decade, very few VC funds in Europe have that. In fact, most companies there are scaled up without VC money, making them easy to outpace.
THe fact that American tech companies have successfully dominated european markets completely refutes your theory
If it is difficult to cater to 27 different countries with different languages and cultures, how come American companies have done it successfuly while europen companies failed in their home continent?
Stop making excuses for your incomptnce and take responsibility
@@Tony-lj5lr Not at all, using your brain you could have guessed that after building momentum on a base of 300 million rich consumers and habing a quite finished product, it's much simpler (economically and logistically) and more interesting to make the effort to adapt to the regulations of each European country and their various languages in order to get acces to theses other rich markets.
Not to mention that virtually all Europeans speak English, but none of them speak the 27 different languages in Europe.
And let's not forget private investors, who are much more cautious in Europe, etc.
But I agree that regulations and taxes in Europe, coupled with the different languages, are a brake on the creation of mega-corporations.
That said, the USA and its total lack of regulation and savage "free market" doesn't seem to make life any more pleasant for the average American either.
What ever just remember that life isnt only and work and money but also about enjoying and living life.
Stop making excuses for your incompetence and take responsibility for your failures
You suc at innovation
You suc at risk taking
You simply didn't have the brains to create world's biggest tech companies like america did
@@ltgdr6298
Finally- someone making what I feel is the biggest point here! (size of national TAM)
I'm a software engineer. I've worked in Korea 5 years, Finland 4 years and U.S. 8 years. In Finland, I worked 35 to 50 percent compared to other continent. Life was beautiful there including nice manager and 1 month vacation in July.
As a European I always found it sad that we lag so much behind the US in the tech scene and the only thing the EU seems to be good at is coming up with rules, laws, regulations etc.
that's a good thing though. You do not want private companies like google or meta or amazon to be as big as they are with no rules to keep them in check. That will just make life worse for everyone.
Step 1: USA with its innovation and risk taking creates world dominant tech companies
Step 2: Europe tries very hard to compete
Step 3: Europe even tries to bring in American investors and compete
Step 4: They fail spectacularly
Step 5: It takes a while for slow brains to realize that they failed
Step 6: They finally come up with a design to regulate them
Step 7: Even in their all efforts to regulate American tech, they still fail to reduce their market share by even one percent
Example : Europe has been trying to regulate for literally 15 years. And still the biggest search engine in Europe is an American company Google
Their slow brains will take some time to realize their failed attempts to regulate American tech
I think what’s missed here is that it’s not just tech but average wages in US is >50% higher than Western Europe. Tech workers are still content in Europe because they still get paid boats more than other jobs on the continent.
i thinkt he way you can look at it is that in europe the lows are higher and the highs are lower. due to many different things like unions, work laws but you also have to remember that in the end of the day you might have more money in a western european country then in the US when everything is payed as you do not need to pay for collage, healtcare, pension, childcare, eldercare etc etc. along with other stuff like parental leave, vacation, sick days, unemployment benefits. so it is really hard to just take the wage number and compare that directly. however I have to acknowledge there is huge differences in these national care programs and wages from country to country. and ofc we cannot forget overtime, odd hour and weekly work hour regulations and compensation.
@@Mira_linnMedian household income is significantly higher in USA compared to Europe
@@hasinabegum1038 Median household income is not the whole story... How come 56% of Americans do not even have $1,000 in savings (source: Bankrate) and are one serious health issue or household expense away from bankruptcy, if they're really earning that much more than Europeans? You do not have that level of financial insecurity even in the poorest parts of Eastern Europe.
@@hasinabegum1038that doesnt say a Lot.
In the US many people earning six Figures live paycheck tot paycheck. Its all about the cost of living. Rent, food healthcare etc.
That's not true, it's actually very close.
As a dual EU/US citizen, I agree with this video. Make money in the USA, retire in the EU. I also live part of the year in SE Asia (I'm retired, inherited a bunch of money a while ago, ex-Silicon Valley).
or actually have a life in Europe and not waste the better years of your life working.
I just think it comes down to metrics. In the US money is very important whilst in Europe time is critical. After ppl reach a certain level of compensation they tend to consider mostly time off rather than further monetary compensation. Additionally, good public services via high taxes is a given and typically widely accepted.
I think the video missed that education cost and thus debt is much lower in Europe. So there's not as much pressure to earn lots of money, not to mention quite good transport infrastructure so many people don't need or want a car which is also a huge status symbol and cost in the US.
Feels like much broader topic to explore , lot of todays tech giants simply absorbed tons of companies . Would be nice to see retrospect of mergers maybe ! 👍
Im from Poland...I usually take 3-4 weeks off in July or August....been working in an IT field for 7 years and ironically for an American company
That would not work in the US.
@@hereforthechips7710 exactly...that's why I wouldnt want to move and work in the US
@@mariok-t3198 can you tell everybody else that lol!!! 9 million jerks bum-rushed our border over the last 2 years. You guys have good immigration policy which is : “DON’T COME HERE!!! PLUS WE WILL NOT CONFORM TO YOU OR YOUR CULTURE IF WE LET YOU COME HERE; YOU WILL CONFORM TO US”.
sorry but i want salary so paid weeks is garbage for me . yah different opinion .
You can take 3-4 weeks off working at Google in USA
Get your head out of youras@@mariok-t3198
0:50
>companies that you probably never heard of before
>SAP
If you've touched a computing device in your life and aren't in school anymore and you don't know SAP something went wrong.
I work in biopharma (non-software engineer) and I use SAP daily. It’s extremely unintuitive (at least my employer’s build is).
@@ItsTechnicallyMagic so right, it is a crime to work with but yet so unbelievable multifunctional
Look, Europe has technology companies, but American tech companies are more well known.
@@colinguo5855 keep on dreaming. most Americans think companys are americamn while they are not hahaaha, country of fools
ASML too. It's in every chip you have, hold or use. This whole video with the weird map at 0:48 is embarrassing.
I think the title is slightly misleading. I dont think that the size of American companies is explained by the employee compensation. I agree that there is an entanglement between employee compensation and buisness culture, but this only explains part of it. The overall compensation structure is on point. Whether this leads truly to a higher living quality I can not say, because I never worked in the US. On top of this I am culturally biased, meaning, that the European system is what I intrinsically prefer. Nonetheless, if you earn above 100K $ in Europe, you will have a good live. And when inflation is over, also with less ;)
It comes down to what you want in your life. In the US, if you get paid with tech salary, you'll have an amazing life. Much better than those in Europe with fake "good" life.
@@HuyHoanghoustonwhat's fake about it? I'm living a pretty good life here in Europe and I'm just not feeling whatever you call "fake".
The title is misleading for sure. Nowadays these youtubers are just in search of right audience for views. They dont care what's right and whats fake.
They are in search of controversial topics.
A happier life is better than a luxurious life in debt.
Most of the US people show fake lives but are actually in debt.
There is one other things:
EXPENSES
In Europe, we have "free" medical aervices, social support from cradle to grave, rather high quality education accessible to masses and few other public benefit, that ppl in U.S. doesn't have.
Also it's customary to build up your house (from proper materials, not paper like in U.S.) and pass it on to your children, which significantly lower costs of living for many…
So while their income may be larger, their actuall living standard may be lower - particularly if living in relationship, having kids…
Black Forest Family made great comparative video about that as well…
A lot of clichees are perpetuated in the video. In Tech, PTO isn't a big factor as big tech usually give pretty generous PTO packages in the US as well (some even unlimited). The productivity, especially in tech is not measured in worked hours, like at all. Many tech companies do not care if you work 30 or 70 hours as long stuff gets done. So no, US based employees are not more productive.
The huge disparity in compensation comes down to 2 aspects: TAX which is usually higher in Europe and competition. In the Bay area it insane concentration of big tech and constantly poke each other staff where as in Europe this is way less common.
Nice video however I think it kind missed the point.
The main question was “What the hell happened to Europe?” The problem is that Europe can not be analyzed as a country.
If we consider European Countries have strong national identies that are much grater and longer lasting than any US State, however the European Union by itself it’s very young and was born only in 1993 (I'm a year older than the EU ). If we would like to consider Europe as European Economic area it was born in 1994.
If we consider Europe as single currency area it’s birthdate is 2001, so in any case Europe is a very recent thing, and I would say quite remarkable as the different European countries had to go over a lot of angst built in centuries of wars.
(It's not correlated but the 9/11 was the same year, as everyone knows what was doing that day, everyone can figure out how the EU building process is, recent yet fast moving).
Back to economics, independently on how you define Europe, it does not exist a sigle European Union in terms of business law so, opposed to what happens in the US where you can tap immediately in one sigle language homogeneously regulated market, in Europe your achievable market size is immediately capped by the national regulation, than the language barrier.
As my Business teacher said “there is no “blue ocean strategy possible if there are just lakes”.
If an European Tech would start has to pick its country “lake”, grow within it and “leap” in another one with different laws, language and culture while trying to “pass under the radar” of US ones that may decide to buy or kill it.
Now when it comes to High-tech and blitz-scaling you need to have a single regulation, single language, single market when you can find your Venture Capitalist and first "desperate customers", for the majority of Tech companies this conditions can not be met in the current Europe.
Ah fair enough, I guess I was approaching it more from the perspective of why are Europeans getting paid way less, but from a more macro perspective, these are some great points
It's easy to forget that EU is not a country and not everyone in EU agrees on everything.
aren't U.S tech companies bigger than European ones in most of Europe though?
If so its negates the point if most of the 'biggest lakes' in europe are american.
@@magnero2749 The point would be at the U.S. tech companies, that they can target the U.S. market(ocean) first and grow big, and now they have the capital and power to expand easier to the markets(lakes) in europe. While the european tech companies need to first grow in each smaller markets(lakes) before they accumulate capital and power to make it easier to grow and expand in new markets(lakes/oceans).
The pay thing in the U.K. sucks a lot of it dates back to the 2008 financial crash, companies froze pay and it hasn’t really risen much since then in line with inflation.
UK = not europe, you are our mexico of europe if you wanna be calling yourself europeans.
I feel like by Tech he means software companies. But software is just a part of all tech. Actually a lot of tech companies are from Europe but yeah sure not the new internet companies. But then again most of them don't even exist 20 years. And when I hear about the working conditions and social securities in USA then I'd always choose Europe before that. I mean who wants to work 2 jobs to be able to live a "normal life" and who wants to be transported to the hospital by a taxi because the Ambulance cost already a arm while the treatment itself costs the other arm and both legs.
Europe's favorite thing to do is legislate and regulate themselves until they can't compete in a given market.
Maybe the market shouldnt be our main focus?
@@LordOfTime23 being behind rest of the world is what Europe should be focusing on?
Better than predatory capitalism
@@rushatyadav9135 Keep telling yourself that while India passes you in wages...
@@IFRYRCE I am an Indian
I'm currently in London, and when discussing annual leave, some companies force taking all the mandated annual leave each year. I still have 5 days annual leave to use for this year, and already used 25 going to Taiwan, South Korea and Albania throughout the year. I asked if I could move those 5 days to January, and I was told that I need to ensure annual leave allowance is used every year, in order to have a healthy mental health mindset and life in general. It shows how some companies actually care about their staff, and want them to be happy living life, which then in turns allows us to be able to work more efficiently when we're working.
Also, love your videos. They're such high quality and I'm very impressed with every one I watch. Very interesting topics as well. What microphone do you use for your videos (I'm looking for one to make my videos sound better)?
I work in California with 15 days leave and my company also asks many times for us to use all the leave. They say it's for health, but really it's that PTO is earned wages in California, and if you take less time off, you are paid back by the company for the time you didn't take off
You guys are very efficient at working and hence you managedt to create literally zero out of top ten biggest tech companies while America created 7 out of top ten biggest tech companies? Is that your logic? Ha ha
Instead of making excuses for your country's incomptnce, try taking resopnsibility for a change for god's sake.
@@Tony-lj5lr using your brain you could have guessed that after building momentum on a base of 300 million rich consumers and habing a quite finished product, it's much simpler (economically and logistically) and more interesting to make the effort to adapt to the regulations of each European country and their various languages in order to get acces to theses other rich markets.
Not to mention that virtually all Europeans speak English, but none of them speak the 27 different languages in Europe.
And let's not forget private investors, who are much more cautious in Europe, etc.
But I agree that regulations and taxes in Europe, coupled with the different languages, are a brake on the creation of mega-corporations.
That said, the USA and its total lack of regulation and savage "free market" doesn't seem to make life any more pleasant for the average American either.
What ever just remember that life isnt only and work and money but also about enjoying and living life.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Europe outshines the US in terms of work-life balance and overall quality of life. We enjoy the basics of a life we can afford, from healthcare covered by the state to affordable and healthy food options. Unlike the US, where work hours are longer and healthcare is a major expense, we in Europe have more vacation days, ensuring time for ourselves and our families. The ability to afford a home, coupled with our strong social safety nets like unemployment benefits and parental leave, truly makes living in Europe more conducive to a fulfilling life.
Is all that sustainable though? With decling birth rates Europe will have less people therefore less money. Those safety nets will be struggling to find the funding they need.
Not all of Europe, look at the Balkans and most of Eastern Europe...
@@pavlepavlovic4073 well i am from the ballkans, and i can say that it’s worse than europe but better than usa
@@speakoutloud7293 If you are in politics or have good connections, yeah you can do well in the Balkans. Otherwise in no way is Balkans better than US, Balkans suck big balls. The only better thing we have is culture and humor. You can live a fulfiling life in the US but you gotta work for it. It is not just going to be given to you like in the former Communist regimes in the Balkans.
Not sure where you've got your numbers from, but at least for the UK and the Netherlands the listed salaries are far lower than they really are. I've yet to meet an engineering director at a tech company who's making less than $150k in Amsterdam, nor who'd accept to work for such a 'low' wage... I regularly pay my senior engineers at or above what you've listed as a 'Director of Engineering' because if I won't, there's always somebody who would... Yes, base salaries here are considerably lower than in the tech centers of USofA, but not really 50% lower. If you count in all the perks and the actual number of hours worked, it's not nearly as bad as it looks on paper, either.
voila that one gets it. You get paid less but you also work less. And at the same time your retirement is paid if you do not work 75% of your salary will be wired to your bank account fo 6 months ( in France ) . you have paternity leave and so on and so on. Go find that in the USA. And the cost of living is lower and buying a big house is way cheaper than in San Francisco.
@@TheBlackManMythLegend San Francisco is just one city, and one of the most expensive ones at that.
yeah I think these stats are a bit low. People also don't report their real salaries.
A little bit less pay for more time off is worth it in my eyes..
Stress from a job builds over time, I need to let it go/release it from time to time..
You're mixing up paid leave with leave. Not to mention, competitive industries give more benefits.
@@tokesalotta1521
No because employers calculate leave hours on a percentage of your salary, so that reduces your total salary with more leave hours.
So "less pay for more off time" is correct.
The competition in Europe is on a decline and will worsen because most productive and tech companies get brought out by American companies.
Highly trained/motivated people will most likely leave Europe to work for American or Chinese companies.
You have plenty of PTO in the US, this isn't an issue in big tech, it is an issue in the rest of corporate US.
A little bit less pay is not 50% or 70% less pay xD.
@@rolas2700lmao and there is literally not a single country with 70% tax
Thanks for the video!
Mandatory minimum days off per year for employees in United Kingdom: 28. Mandatory minimum days off per year for employees in United States: 0. Average hours worked in a week for tech workers in United Kingdom: 40. Average hours worked per week for tech workers in United States: 50 (which is 2 hours more than the legal limit in United Kingdom). Workers in the US also have to pay part of their health insurance and pay some of the medical treatment costs. Medical expenses are still the most common reason for people in the US to declare bankruptcy. In the United Kingdom employees pay none of that. Unions for tech workers exist in the UK. In the US they do not. Median length of employment as a FAANG engineer in the US is one year.
None of these American corporations and their billionaire owners even see themselves as American: They are global sovereign citizens. If the laws in another country allow something the laws in America deem illegal they will move that portion of their business there and sell their products in the rest of the world without suffering any criminal penalties whatsoever. Most pay little tax in America and some of the biggest have years where they pay absolutely no taxes as do the billionaires that own them. That's right: People working at fast food restaurants pay more in taxes in the US than some of these mega corporations. Our last billionaire President boasted of paying zero taxes and said it was because he was smarter than the people who pay. America has tent encampments of homeless people in all of our big cities and calls to the police for help routinely are not answered because the funding to keep basic services running here isn't available because the ultra successful people behind what you are calling American greatness were also ultra successful at bribing politicians, controlling the options of who we can vote for in the first place, writing the tax laws and controlling the people who enforce them.
Great video, thank you.
I'm not European, but whenever I see Americans appalled by the idea of 20 days off per year I think of the 30 I take and wonder what the hell is wrong with these people. Why work so hard? That's a China tier mentality. The Chinese were literally dying of starvation a mere 2 generations ago, and they remember it, so it makes sense for them to be as workaholic as they are, but Americans? Why? Just why?
Because the Americans and Chinese will outcompete and eat Europeans into poverty over time.
I'm not appalled by days off. Completely untrue.
I get 3 weeks off at my company.
I feel that there is something missed here with this topic as usual: One of the key things is that America is one large market of 330 million people or so. Europe is a series of dislocated smaller markets of around 67m people for UK, France similar amount, Germany maybe 83 million etc. Each market is regulatorily slightly different, see themselves as members of different countries with different laws, tax rates etc, and crucially different loyalties and levels of trust towards neighbours. For example, an Italian company may face opposition to achieving complete dominance in the Greek market, where they may want their own national company to do the same. American companies benefit from having by far the largest "petri dish" to grow into within the Western world, and as such its giants can scale to many times the size of any other national champion before even needing to go internationally. Size gives them huge network effects and other economies of scale.
Many graduates in India are struggling to earn 3lpa.
Many are employed.
Over population is a curse.
I'd like to see a cost of living comparison - How much does it cost to live in San Francisco/London vs. London/Amsterdam?
It costs a good amount more to live in London than LA
The fact that there is pride in working your whole life as a mere cog in a big machine tells a lot about the pathetic world we have created for ourselves and live in haha.
if you want to know the main reason why "no big tech in europe" it's pretty simple, in the usa you have a logic of strategic investment, the nation will invest in strategical tech/company wich make growth this same company, that not the case in most if not all eu country, and like i said, country, the union itself barely invest in research, it's a methodology who started in the 90's and ended tech development here.
A good demonstration would be ironicaly a counter example (like i said barely not 0 investment), the European space program is right now one of the most advanced in the world, the main reason being that the company are "officialy private" but largely state control giving them no choice but to actualy be strategic with what they are doing, you have the same thing with airbus who is basicaly boeing equal if you talk about regular people plain. same thing in military stuff etc...
The social system never was an issues
Contentment? I don’t know about Northern Europeans, but my Southern European friends from Spain and Italy didn’t seem at all happy about their situations in their respective countries.
That map in the beginning is truly an American made map
As a tech enterpreneur in Europe, I have to disagree. Major factors as the conservatism and reluctance to adopt new technologies are not mentoned at all, the lack of fundings options and the reluctance to invest in innovation compared to US, just to mention a few. The ones mentioned in the video I would catergorise either as secondary or not relevant at all. For example: even if Germans have the 25 days of holiday per year, the sayng "Germans live to work" has its roots. Germans working 70 hours a week are no exeption, Germans who hadn't had a holiday for 5-6 years, too. and still, Germany is one of the least technology & innovation inclined countries at the moment.
In europe they don't really work. They have 35 hour workweeks and get over a month of vacation time. Not as much time to get stuff done, plus they have higher taxes combined with lower pay. From both a worker and business standpoint it's undesirable
Donyiu know why? Europe is more concern regulating everything rather than innovating
ASML is single handedly making possible that those murican tech companies can make anything at all 😂😂
Agreed, ASML is a truly hiddeb monopoly. They monopolize the Silicon industry and make theory into practice. Their ONLY product is the machine to etch silicon wafers, service for said machines and R&D to optimize this process.
I went there on business tours as a Robotics engineering student in 2016 when they were at the precipice of the 6nm trend.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 what a joke ? where do you guys come from . poor europiens . why they dont learn . i am asian by the way .
Europ has one semiconductor company US has loads
EUrop gets its as kikd by usa here as wel
I always wondered why facebook and other social media is considered tech. While, let´s say, the local communal bulletin site is not.
It's also a cultural difference. Starting up, a tech company demands a lot of start-up kapital with high risk. That's easier in the USA than in Europe.Take into account that in Europe, employees' salaries get taxed a lot more (social health care, retirement...) I should know cause I worked in the USA. Yes, indeed, way less tax on salaries, fewer holidays ... So I am not at all surprised.
Where did you find that bad flag map?
Seeing Poland with the Czech flag was the first thing that caught my eye xD
well, in Europe a guy that wins 100k, is better than someone in the US that does 300k, because the one in the US that does 300k will need to pay 600k for a broken arm, or health treatment 🤣..
Loved the video, very insightful and true. I recently moved to London and I am surprised how low salaries are and how expensive the city is. I applied for a tech position in Amazon UK in London and salary was 50% less of the same position in Texas, also, companies in London have much more requirements than in the USA (for tech industry), I think contentment, as mentioned in the video, is the reason of that. Quality of life is not as stressful as other places tho. I have mixed feelings about this as I would sacrifice time off for more money as I like having a much more comfortable life specially when it comes to housing, but locals seem to be happy and ok with it, which is the most important thing.
Yes, but you have to think that you don't need that much money in the countries you have to pay tax for half anyway, so it will only hurt them more if they get paid more because a higher percentage will be taken
so for example in my country you always have to stay under a special rate if you over it then you pay so much money in tax we are talking it can be 52% for me right now Is it only 40%
I promise you, more people have heard of SAP than you probably realize. I had multiple jobs where I used SAP every day. They have a larger market cap than salesforce, and are likely the largest company making their type of enterprise software.
I didn't even realize SAP is European, they are ubiquitous in large corporations doing expense reports and shit.
Yeah. A lot of the western world runs on SAP modules.
Yea but most people don't see their stuff its just running in the background
Compared to American tech companies like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, Apple etc, SAP is nowhere near as heard
It is not unheard of, but it is nowhere near as popular as American big tech
@@Tony-lj5lr there's two type of company one's doing B2C and the one's doing B2B. SAP is only a B2B company that why most random people dont know SAP
its not only about high wages, there are other things to take into account. work-life balance, insurances, taxes and what those taxes you pay give you, and possibly also bonuses anongst other things.
If I earn 50% more in USA then I will defenetly choose USA No matter what you say
@@hasinabegum1038 Thats stupid - you obviously would'nt do that if the costs of living the place where you earn 50% more exceeds that of 50%. If you have to pay way higher insurance, housing prices, transportation etc.
theres a reason why people for example in my country, denmark, 9/10 residents are fine paying almost 50% in taxes because how much in benefit you get by paying that much in taxes, such as free school + paid to go to school, healthcare, dental care till you're 21 or 25 etc. because it is all financed through taxes, which EVERYONE pays. So its obviously not only about wages.
@@fort6564Before tax salaries are much higher in USA.Schools are also free in USA.Buying house in USA is more cheaper then Most rich European countries
@@hasinabegum1038 schools arent fee in the US lmfao. Most people go in debt all their life after college because they owe more than $50k+
Houses aren't cheap either, its all relative to where you live.
+ You might not have as much work-life balance, which is also important for people, not only to work 24/7 to get rich. European countries focus way more on this, while in the US you're just seen a money printing machine to the companies.
@@fort6564 schools are free in USA but not Universities and houses in USA is cheaper then UK or Germany
Excellent points were made but in fairness to ASML, they may not be as rich as Apple or google but they play a much more important role in global technology. With ASML there would be no Apple or Samsung or TSMC
yeah but a salad cost 12 USD in /california and in France a quality salary organic cost 3 or 4 USD, If you compare the cost of living and the benefit The salary disparity begins to become less problematic. A lot of americans once they go to Europe prefer to stay there. Less stress , paternity leave, healthcare.
How many from the top tiers would exist, without European tech from STM, NXP, ASML, Siemens, Solidworks and so on?
It depends on where you are looking. I don’t know much about the tech of other European countries, but when I look at my own country, the Netherlands, we aren’t doing that bad.
We are nr 1 in agricultural science. (University of Wageningen is the best in the world. We are the second agricultural products exporting country in the world after the USA, while our surface is 10% of that of California. The agricultural techniques themselves are exported all over the world. Including farm management.
We are nr. 1 in water management. Dutch watermanagement experts are working all over the world. Including several cities in the USA.
Our infrastructure is one of the best in the world. People from all over the world come here to study how to improve your infrastructure. There is a lot of technology involved there. Like the traffic lights, the surface of the roads (Zoab)
And we have ASML!!! The whole world depends on that.
You should also consider that several countries in Europe are not using the Anglo Saxon stockholder value model, but the Rhineland model.
I work for a company that has many European employees. At some point, they had asked if I would move there, and I just couldn't based on the pay difference.
Ah fair enough
haha you missed out on a good oppurtunity to actually enjoy LIFE instead of work!
your loss
enjoy life? doing what? europeans spend most of their free time scrolling through american social media companies and playing video games for god's sake
get your head out of youras@@JustMe-sh8nd
Spot on. It's all about culture and laws.
🤔The main thing is protection of consumer and employees. You can’t have that and at the same time compete with the US .
USA : We create software
China : We create Hardware
EU : We Create Regulation & Increase Tax
Japan: We do the same thing as EU
How do you create regulate ?
China actually has more software than Europe
Have u seen the Fediverse?
Such a simpleton view
0:50 What is this HERESY?!?!
I know right lol.. Croatian flag over Slovenia, Brazilian over France, what is happening with the map..
It's showing the country of each country's longest land border.
I think it's also a matter of perception/visibility. Europe doesn't have big Internet companys and the electronics products tend to not be end-consumer oriented.
For example siemens does manufacture hard- and software for a lot of Industrial applications and is the market leader in these areas.
Also many of the european companies (for example car manufacturers) are smaller when it comes to market evaluation, but not smaller in terms of revenue and profit.
Great video❤very informative
Make a video on work time and salary situation of Canadians as well
America: we've got Apple
Europe: we've got a hulk (Nokia the indestructible one)
the difference is that in europe there is less crap to buy. The US is a giant discount mall to europeans, where in their country they drive smaller cars & gas prices are always high. (spain wasn’t that bad though). The UK is not a part of europe anymore (Brexit) so i’m speaking EU countries. If i had let’s say a $150k i would save that. Vacationing living in europe to other parts of the world that is not to the west is also cheaper from europe. I’m saying this because i have two children from a prior marriage in denmark 🇩🇰 and lived in denmark for 7 years (Puertorican & Dominican). You don’t need all that money. Trust me. Unless you want to live in like the biggest city, let’s say copenhagen which is like 12k Krones a month for a decent place to live, last i checked ( roughly $1750 as of today’s exchange) you don’t need that money. Trust me. Good to have but it’s not gonna effect your way of life as how in the US, we need that much to go above & beyond to pay a high mortgage/rent & fill our living space with bull crap 💩 we will never need if aliens 👾 invaded 😂 Hope you learned something 😉
Stop saying that the UK isn't part of Europe anymore. You can't leave the continent, lmao.
@@impersonator4439 but you can leave the EU 😜
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The UK is the only sovereign country to have left the EU. The UK had been a member state of the EU or its predecessor, the European Communities (EC), since 1 January 1973. Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have primacy over British laws.
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Why is the map of europe at 0:45 completely off?
Great video as always
Thank you Balpreet!
Maybe these companies are part of the problem in USA right now. They have extremely monopolistic tendencies
The most important reason is that citizens of the UK are running away from STEAM subjects.
Why are they running away from STEAM degrees?
Comparing Europe as a whole to America as a whole is just stupid. The most important takeaway should be that children in America aren't being prepared for high tech jobs. Too many teachers are stupid and don't have important skills. Instead of teaching kids how to code, medicine, finance, and other skills, they teach kids that boys can be girls, it's healthy and beautiful to be fat, and you'll get special treatment if you can identify as a victim -- and that participating is as important as giving it your best and winning
Even China ( one country ) is even Rich that entire Europe .🥴
Well, we definitely don't have such problem of "wokeness" in Europe, but apart from that US education seems better.
im european and you said a lot of bs
0:49 seeing the Irish flag cover the UK gave me a chuckle
Or Brazil over Spain, and Spain over Portugal. Among many others
@@alexevert5457 I find it amusing because I'm from the Republic of Ireland and given the history between the UK and Ireland, that's all
And this is in Americans favor, nobody can argue that growing money in investment for the future is lesser than cash compensation. It’s the opposite, not a question of preference. But much more than that, one, it makes the worker more motivated, two, it grows and compounds and three it makes the worker save automatically. 4 it could be used as collateral for financing anything which is tax efficient, and much more.
Europe has so much bureaucracy! I sell board games. Every country has its own VAT%, product safety testing laws, etc. It makes it a pain to do business.
Extreely well researched. Congratz
Forgot arm? The company behind almost all of modern tech infrastructure today?
Starting salary of tech in my country Bangladesh is around $4500 per year 🙂.
In India too, starting at $5000. But can go upto 50,000 for FAANG companies
I love how you bring up stock yet just forget that Europe has never had a unified stock market in the first place, heavily relying on banks to move money around. While the US has traditionally used capital markets in lieu of a national banking system that has traditionally been left to the states to manage.
No wonder European compensation is lower, since they just don't have a market infrastructure to effectively deliver one. Like, you can't provide massive stock bonuses without a liquid stock market in the first place.
In most of Europe high end jobs just pay a lot less than the US. Low end jobs pay a lot more. The averages are usually pretty close, compared to the most developed European countries like England and The Netherlands. Its not just tech
Median salary in the U.K. is 40k. Also, the standard of living for many in the U.K. is more like living in a second world country.
Thanks america for the tech jobs, its bringing civilization in these backwaters and bringing prosperity to a few but not really affecting anyone negatively
Europe is a collection of small countries with their own regulations. The EU is an attempt to standardize regulations and minimize barriers. Give it another 1000 years and we will finally have the economy of scale to attract capital 🎉
Productivity in europe is high, that is definitely not the reason for lack of big software companies.
Speaking of ASML, they are not even fully independent, US has the final saying who they can and cannot sell to.
That's only because all the glass used in their optics is manufactured by Corning in upstate NY
dont look at asml the same way as say Microsoft or facebook
asml is more comparable to boeing or airbus , they are a system integrator
asml simply sources a lot of technologies and combines them in one product like a lens from zeiss or systems to test wafers from applied materials etc
0:45 WTF is that map? Am I missing something?
The video definitely misses a whole bunch of critical points, though the conclusion isn't necessarily too far off.
Using India as an example for high Software Engineering is beyond silly. India has a massive problem with Senior Software Engineers and Software Managers. The second these people get promoted, they are pouched by various South Pacific countries where cost of living is non-existent. They take a pay cut and live like kings in other counties. It's a massive problem which results in big companies having to pay them massive salaries to stick around. Lower Level positions aren't pouched so their salaries are a fraction of what you would be making in Europe as example.
Its not just tech, for all the talk about wealth European incomes are usually far behind the USA. Which is fine to an extent, but eventually being broke will out weigh comfort. See: German chemical industry going to crap because they stopped importing cheap russian gas for fuel and feed stock.
It is important to note that any culture that was "content" throught history is not really around anymore, make of it what you will...
I will make of it that it's very difficult to correctly predict the future, and it's possible (though not likely) for a culture to be "content" and survive.
There is also the fact that many Europeans are working for far smaller companies that are much more volatile when it comes to shares and non tangible compensation.
If you offer the average European share comparison in a company especially if its not a well known big company they will look at you with suspicion.
There are a lot of share scams out there to get you to work for cheap at a company that may not bet the best managed, meaning all those shares are basically trash when its time to cash them out or the company goes under.
Also given the shell game that company could be owned by a bigger company that extracts the profits in the form of rent or loans to the smaller company so even if it goes under the bigger company doesn't take a hit at all while all the share compensation given out to the employees goes poof...
Knowing all this a European is much more wary of empty promises from companies in the for of share comparison instead asking for cold hafd cash instead.
What about corporate taxes and stock market? Government contracts and partnerships?
How? The whole continent was destroyed by war, but meanwhile US wasn't. There is your answer.
80 years ago?
@@binoo0324 Yes. 80 years ago. That destruction, which the US was spared, gave a huge headstart. Ofc there is other reasons as well.
@@binoo0324Sillicon Valley phenomena started exactly after the WWII by engineers, scientist and companies that made their money on the defence contracts. Many scientists and engineers themselves were aquired through fleeing the conflict Europeans. The government itself made long term invesment by landing money to the destroyed Europe through Marshall plan and lend-leases during the war.
Nonetheless, many very high-end advanced instruments and manufacture machinery used by US and Chinese companies are still made in Europe.
So they could build cutting edge engineering marvels like tgv but couldn’t jump onto the IT bandwagon? lol ok
Yeah that excuse is good for Japan and china too…
You're well on your way to a million subscribers. Great videos!
I keep clicking the next video at the end man. You should be hired as a CEO
but heres the thing, without companies like ASML the big tech companies wouldnt exist. Europe doesnt need big tech because they make the products that allow new tech to be made everywhere else.
Although ASML is an essential feature in the big picture, it is still a small fraction in the making of semiconductors. All the designing is done in the US and most of fabrication happens in Asia.
All comes to the way of living. America lacks some things like an actual good heath care system, but Europe has it. Some things others are better than the others. My guess is that it would take double to effort to be in the top compared to others what put the same effort as the Europeans.
There are different factors what decide this.
Im just saying my opinion.