> One reason that Europe has very few innovative new companies created in the last 25 years is that everyone is at the coffee shop writing poetry. I rather thi

> One reason that Europe has very few innovative new companies created in the last 25 years is that everyone is at the coffee shop writing poetry. I rather think a central reason (at least in Germany) lies in the complicated laws regarding founding companies (including taxes etc.). Another reason is that Europe is no unified culture but a multitude of countries - each with its own language, law tradition etc. . Compare the federal states of Germany with the states of the USA and Germany with the USA and in each point of this comparison, you have similar level of culture similarity. The level of culture similarity in Europe should rather be compared to the level of culture similarity in North and South America together.