Former German resident: its not just the tax code that fucks innovation there, its the slow rate of bureaucracy and change. Until relatively recently, to open

Former German resident: its not just the tax code that fucks innovation there, its the slow rate of bureaucracy and change. Until relatively recently, to open a GmbH (limited company), you needed to have 25k in assets (cash or similar) in the company upfront. Which stifled a lot of small things. There's now a mini-gmbh structure that you can set up and later upgrade to a full one, but its infuriatingly complex IMO. The UK has much simpler company rules, but Brexit, and way back when in the pre web days the UK government basically destroyed the UK's high tech industries by forcing various mergers and buyouts to happen (ICI, various computing firms, etc), which has had long lasting impacts on the field there. As for why people go into medicine: medicine has a lot of social capital associated with it, and you need extremely high grades to get into med school, so its prestigious. Its also almost guaranteed employment with a relatively high level of income, so a lot of parents push smart kids into becoming a doctor. Doctor, lawyer, accountant and engineer (bridges, not code) are jobs that are seen as "high value".