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Whose evidence? According to this list[1] with data from the World Bank, Netherlands is 35th has 45.05 small businesses per 1000 people. Do you have a station

Whose evidence? According to this list[1] with data from the World Bank, Netherlands is 35th has 45.05 small businesses per 1000 people. Do you have a stationary shop on your corner or in your neighborhood? I certainly had access to many small businesses in Rotterdam, that would have folded 25 years again the States, replaced by mega corps and big box retailers. The United States on the other hand is 69th on the list with 19.98 small businesses per 1000 people [1] http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/Micro/Small-and-medium-enterprises/Number/Per-capita http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/Micro...

vasilipupkin 12y ago
in all fairness, comparing numbers of micro businesses across countries is tricky. differences in tax laws can create incentives to register as a micro business vs some other way, but not much of a measure of large scale entrepreneurship. But, either way, little evidence that US is more entrepreneurial
SilasX 12y ago
It doesn't seem helpful to equate small businesses and startups. Usually meme about "entrepreneurs being good for the economy" is referring to the latter, who fundamentally change how it works, finding numerous non-obvious efficiency improvements, rather than giving slightly cheaper picture framing. On that metric, is Europe still ahead of the US?
wsc981 12y ago
I guess small businesses include the so-called ZZP-er (freelancer), for many jobs paid pretty crappy. In the Netherlands, especially for low income jobs like packet delivery, many Dutch companies hire ZZP-ers these days, since it's easier to get rid off. It's really hard and expensive in The Netherlands to get rid of bad performing employees with a permanent contract, especially compared to the USA. Because of this reason many companies prefer to hire ZZP-ers currently. From recent statistics I understand we have approximately 800.000 ZZP-ers in the Netherlands or 1 per every 21 citizens.

vasilipupkin 12y ago

in all fairness, comparing numbers of micro businesses across countries is tricky. differences in tax laws can create incentives to register as a micro business vs some other way, but not much of a measure of large scale entrepreneurship. But, either way, little evidence that US is more entrepreneurial

SilasX 12y ago

It doesn't seem helpful to equate small businesses and startups. Usually meme about "entrepreneurs being good for the economy" is referring to the latter, who fundamentally change how it works, finding numerous non-obvious efficiency improvements, rather than giving slightly cheaper picture framing. On that metric, is Europe still ahead of the US?

wsc981 12y ago

I guess small businesses include the so-called ZZP-er (freelancer), for many jobs paid pretty crappy. In the Netherlands, especially for low income jobs like packet delivery, many Dutch companies hire ZZP-ers these days, since it's easier to get rid off. It's really hard and expensive in The Netherlands to get rid of bad performing employees with a permanent contract, especially compared to the USA. Because of this reason many companies prefer to hire ZZP-ers currently. From recent statistics I understand we have approximately 800.000 ZZP-ers in the Netherlands or 1 per every 21 citizens.