There are a lots of misunderstandings about cost of firing, cost of employment, etc... in Europe. What is true is that it is complicated because every country i

There are a lots of misunderstandings about cost of firing, cost of employment, etc... in Europe. What is true is that it is complicated because every country is different, and some countries can be anal about one thing that others are not. A typical example: in France, you often have to consult union before having to fire people (especially true is big companies). The key point though is "consult". Whether they say yes or not is actually irrelevant (from a legal POV, that is). I am also tried about the "stealing your money argument". In the US, the salary you get after taxes still needs to be used to pay health insurance and retirement. In continental Europe, that's part of the 'stolen' money. You can argue whether it is a good system or not, but an honest comparion is to e.g. remove the social contributions for health (around 6-7 % for a beginner engineer with a good degree), and pension (around 10-12 % IIRC). When comparing e.g. the US vs European country, this has to be taken into account (the graph in the OP is pure non-sense in that regard for the OP argument). As far as Silicon Valley goes: from all countries I have been working in, Japan has by far the lower income taxation. Yet, it does not especially thrive in a silicon valley manner (I also believe California is far from being the state with the lower income tax in the US ?).