"I think there's a big difference between a US elite university, and say, Germany with German universities" I believe that difference is $200k annually. I mean

"I think there's a big difference between a US elite university, and say, Germany with German universities" I believe that difference is $200k annually. I mean obviously free public universities in Germany will be a lot less selective than paid US elite universities. "They really, really, really hate anyone that deviates from the norm. This is just my constant experience in Germany which is why I had to leave because I did deviate from the norm." My experience has been exactly the opposite. Germans will try to show their individualism with odd little quirks like flower decoration and exotic hobbies. On the flip side, just try getting respect from US bankers if you're not wearing their pre-approved "business suit uniform". In Germany, you're usually OK visiting a bank in shorts and t-shirt. "Germany feels a lot poorer than the United States" I can agree to this one. Rich people in Germany are a lot more hesitant to be flashy about showing off their expensive car, etc. I'm not sure it is a bad thing, though. I would want rich people to pretend to be normal just so that society feels fairer for everyone (even if it is factually wrong). "If you look at German billionaires, they all have inherited wealth, where the US billionaires which they... " There's this club around the Rocket Internet and Project A people who have all become at least 10% billionaires from their own startup exits, some even with US funds like Sequoia or Tiger. But in general yes, there's a lot of inherited old wealth in Europe. But did Trump, for example, really become rich by working himself? BTW, he seems to whine a lot about the lack of European / German quality research. Again, my guess would be it's more about a different way of presenting it. MP3 and MP4 and MPEG-H are all from Fraunhofer in Germany. It's just that MPEG-H is usually branded as "Dolby Atmos". If you're a small European company and you want to enter the US market, it many cases it's easiest to have a local reseller. That way, it appears to be an US product.