I can't vouch for how European Countries labor laws influence start up culture over there, and I'm sure its definitely a thing, but I quibble strongly with the

I can't vouch for how European Countries labor laws influence start up culture over there, and I'm sure its definitely a thing, but I quibble strongly with the idea that US manufacturing was moved to Asia because of environmental regulations. Its generally accepted that its due to a one two punch of lower labor costs and a lack of willingness to invest back into factories due to de-regulation in the 80s and 90s which favored financialization of corporations[0]. This lead to a self-perpetuating cycle where American manufacturers struggled and couldn't make the investments needed to stay competitive in most markets where there wasn't regulation (such as car tariffs). This in turn lead to situations where, for instance, if you needed specialized manufacturing Asia ended up farther ahead on both price and quality than the typical US manufacturer. In short, it was de-regulation that lead to structural favoring of financialized corporations which in turn lead to a downward investment in manufacturing in the US while investment in manufacturing sectors in Japan, China and other countries soared[1] [0]: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol36/iss2/17/ https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol36/iss2/17/ [1]: https://hbr.org/2009/07/restoring-american-competitiveness https://hbr.org/2009/07/restoring-american-competitiveness