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Why Startups Condense in America
bariswheel writes "The controversial genius developer/writer/entertainer Paul Graham writes an insightful piece on Why Startups Condense in America. Here's the skinny: "The US allows immigration, it is a rich country, it is not (yet) a police state, the universities are better, you can fire people, work is less identified with employment, it is not too fussy, it has a large domestic market, it has venture funding, and it has dynamic typing for careers. Inquire for details within."
Plus it's the only country which gets away with amassing a huge debt because its currency is used as oil trading and reserve currency world wide. Besides, it allows immigration? Aren't you discussing a wall along your southern border right now?
America is the western nation that LEAST protects its workers. The overclass here has managed to use a variety of propaganda techniques to allow the ruination of legal protections for American workers. That makes us easier to exploit than the workers in other nations. So, startups want to be here--honest, educated, hardworking and exploitable.
Get back to work, you good little american sheeple!
Homo Sapiens Americanus--A documentary in p
Paul Graham farted again today. Stay tuned to Slashdot for all the details!
There are a lot of them in Silicon Valley and Boston, and few in Chicago or Miami...
I've claimed that the recipe is a great university near a town smart people like.
Chicago has U of I and its supercomputing centers, no public smoking (just like CA), museums, shows, all the uppity bullshit that Boston and SanFran have, only more of them. Moma museum, anyone? Has TFA's writer ever visited any of these cities?
Miami was a good example, St. Louis might be (despite UMSL), but Chicago has everything TFA says is needed... except startups.
1. The US Allows Immigration.
So do most countries. Japan doesn't, so what? Pick the ONE country that illustrates your point and ignore all of Europe!
2. The US Is a Rich Country.
See #1. Again, about any European country fills the bill.
3. The US Is Not (Yet) a Police State.
But it is closer than Europe. Why aren't there more startups in Amsterdam or Canada? Both fill the bill, having good universities, etc.
4. American Universities Are Better.
Then why in the hell can't these poor fools spell "lose" without adding an extraneous "o"? Why hasn't Rush Limbaugh been tarred and feathered? Why did Bush get (re)elected?
Cambrige and Oxford aren't good schools? Huh?
5. You Can Fire People in America.
In Britian they aren't fired, they're "made redundant." BZZT! France isn't Europe.
6. In America Work Is Less Identified with Employment.
This is the dumbest sentence I've heard uttered this year, and I spend time in bars (and slashdot)!
Oh wait, an even dumber statement in the same section: "Even in the US most kids graduating from college still think they're supposed to get jobs"
7. America Is Not Too Fussy.
Text read "A friend of mine started a company in Germany in the early 90s, and was shocked to discover, among many other regulations, that you needed $20,000 in capital to incorporate."
I tried to start a company in the US and was shocked to find that nothing is free here, either. A fucking bar can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and 3 out of 4 businesses close down within 2 years.
Starting a business is a gamble anywhere. If you have little money, you're not starting a business anywhere.
8. America Has a Large Domestic Market.
See #1. See China. See Canada. See the article writer's limited IQ.
9. America Has Venture Funding.
They don't have gamblers in other countries?
10. America Has Dynamic Typing for Careers.
He's a poor writer, too. Reading on tells you that he means
Key word here, I think, is "generally." It's not a law, is it?
Bullshit, I'm going to The Onion. Much better written, more factual articles (and even more rooted in reality).
-mcgrew ("Probity?")
I'm an American, and I have to say it's for two reasons:
1) On average, Americans have a lot of money.
2) On average, Americans are fools when it comes to money.
For many Americans, it's not just easy to part them from the money they have now, it's easy to part them from the money they'll be earning for the next 15-30 years (through high interest credit cards). I don't think this will last much longer, though. Another poster mentioned that the exploitation of workers is going up (which I agree with). Pretty soon #1 won't be true anymore, and a lot of businesses in America will dry up.
it is not (yet) a police state
Funny, apparently we're talking some other USA here.
Ok. Cute. And how very patriotic. I am an entrepeneur who recently set up a US operation. Our main headquarters is in Sweden. And here's my take on the article, for what it's worth (and I think it is if you want to know how the supposed targets of above article actually think).
It's all bullshit. All of it except one comment, which is on the other hand the Holy Grail for us and any other company setting up shop in the US. It is the world's largest market.
Everything else is complete bull. Crap universities, hostile patent litigation, asshole lawyers, extremely expensive software development compared to ANY other country, incompetent hierarchical structures, police state (now), you can fire people but not if they're a minority or you accidentally touch their ass while passing them in the hallway (you'll get sued). And as for immigration, since when did the US have an immigration policy that allows anything but foreign capital easily into the door?
I'm not slamming the US. I'm slamming the obvious wrongness of this article. I love the US, and our hopes are up for a successful launch. Just don't put tapestry on Slashdot by some dick proclaiming proganda without providing the slightest bit of criticism. The US has gone very, very unfriendly with Bush at the helm.
>Pretty much the *entire* American public is pro-education.
Not even a large majority.
Just how many countries in the world are there where a politician could make a career and a run for President talking about "pointy-headed intellectuals", where "egghead" is a term of contempt, where a President can anounce that what education really needs is school prayer, where someone who reads maybe one book a year can be elected to high office, where the people at the bottom of the academic barrel are the ones chosen to teach children, and where students who study (or, God forbid, excel) are *routinely* frelling beaten up?
Education gets tolerated because it's perceived as leading to high-paying jobs and the production of cool toys.
Socialism and the "mentality of entitlement" that socialism breads are probably the main reasons why socialist countries do not produce the number of good startups. Socialists strive for mediocrity (equality is the same thing as mediocrity, if you think about it). Socialists believe that one is born, one pays lots of taxes, one works, one has lots of pleasure, one maybe raises children, and one dies. They believe that happiness comes from not standing out. People in the U.S. strive for something above that.
(yet) a police state
Please! The socialist countries of Europe (and even Canada) are a lot closer to being a police state than the U.S. has ever been. Just because they are more liberal in certain areas does not mean that they don't spy on their own citizens, treat people like cattle by making them wait in lines (like our DMV), collect information on what people have in their houses for tax reasons, etc.
Everyone seems to think that right wing = police state, which is not really the case here in America. Nazis were socialists. The KKK are socialists. They should not be considered right wing as far as American politics go. The most extreme right wing in America looks like a fairly liberal semi-theocracy.
You claim that limits on firing should exist. But the United States does in fact have limits on firing. For instance, a business can't fire an employee for being in one of the following classes: