101–110 of 126 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sigh, ditto for the Netherlands. It seems lack of culture of failure, and fixed mindset, is all over Europe.
Nassim Taleb would agree -- in Black Swan he writes: "American culture encourages the process of failure, unlike the cultures of Europe and Asia where failure is met with stigma and embarrassment. America’s specialty is to take these small risks for the rest of the world, which explains this country’s disproportionate share in innovations."
My opinion : the low salaries of engineers, high taxes and bureaucracy hold back the startup scene. Also, the mentality toward technical positions, in France if you didn't go from engineer to manager by 35 year old people wonder what's wrong with you. https://imgur.com/a/MOlau0V
Its all about money and taxes. Let's start with a labour budget of $300,000 to hire a lead programmer or other critical person. France: 41.35% of the gross salary is paid to the Government in payroll taxes, leaving $175,938 paid as income to the employee. After income taxes, $90,167 is left for the employee to spend. That employee then wants to spend their entire salary on flat-screen TVs? They have an effective spen…
In France it's the same, but here's a major difference once you add kids to the equation:
Each kid of a couple counts the same as "0.5 zero-income spouse", up to 3 kids. After the 3rd kid (or if the kid has handicap), they count the same as "1 full zero-income spouse"
So for a couple with one spouse with a salary of X , one spouse without job, and 2 kids, the taxes would be calculated as if there was 3 persons making X/3 each, instead of 2 people making X/2 in the US. Given that the tax brackets are even more progressive than in the US, the impact seem huge.
My opinion : the low salaries of engineers, high taxes and bureaucracy hold back the startup scene. Also, the mentality toward technical positions, in France if you didn't go from engineer to manager by 35 year old people wonder what's wrong with you. https://imgur.com/a/MOlau0V
That's an interesting picture. I took those numbers and compared them to Wikipedia's purchasing-power adjusted average wage figures for 2017 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_w... . Here are the results sorted by ratio of average developer salary to average salary in each country. You get the best bang for your buck in .il and .fr doesn't (quite) get the wooden spoon. Country Ratio dev:avg…
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France is full of "service" jobs, those are crap and lower the average. Just ignore those and look at the jobs that matter, if you're the kind of developer who would have the skills to relocate to SF. If you're senior, in France, you can get a fairly good salary as a developer. There is definitely no glass ceiling at 40k; you can get more than 50k easily, and above 70k if you have can find the right company with a go…
Your numbers are about right for Paris. Note that if you cross the sea to the UK, London. The salary is double and it's in British pound.
I've no idea why would an average developer choose US over EU.
Here in EU, i just do minimum of what is expected from me and don't even take calls on holidays including weekend.
If i am sick, i go to government hospital and get treated for free.
Thanks to our welfare estate, there is simply no pressure to risk more.
I won't go homeless if i am out of job.
I simply focus on my family and my life.
Work can always wait. But can life wait? Noo.
Now if u are a rockstar who is is worth 100s of developers like a CEO or VP of engineering, i can see why you would choose US but average developers should never choose US where u can go homless the moment you are out of job.
I've no reason to work harder than i am already doing...
In US, there was always pressure to make more to save for rainy days this required throwing your own friends under the bus to save your job.
Second thing is, here most people look like me. They are like my own brothers and sisters. In US, not all people look like you, so it's quite difficult to not discriminate against them and throw them under the bus, it goes in both directions. Not my people, not my problem.
Because of Homegeneous society i feel more trust in European community. In US, it will never be the case which made me a bad human because i actively descriminated against different ethincs. Now, i feel much better in EU.
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Low salaries are not a good thing for the startups! Here's an article from a French engineer that is currently on the front page of HN: https://web.archive.org/web/20180925150228/https://florentcr... tldr; he moved to SF because salaries are much, much higher than in France, even considering the social benefits that you get in France. Other threads on HN have French engineers saying that they love living in France wh…
>I've lived in Paris, Berlin, NYC and California. I'll never understand how European founders can keep saying that 40k euro salaries for engineers is a benefit while they watch so many great engineers leave to American companies. This. I have tasted the fruit and I'm never going back. The social benefits feel largely like gimmicks compared to the standard of living + social recognition you get working as an engineer…
Until they or their wives become pregnant. Then suddenly those immigrants feel the need to come back for some years.
My opinion : the low salaries of engineers, high taxes and bureaucracy hold back the startup scene. Also, the mentality toward technical positions, in France if you didn't go from engineer to manager by 35 year old people wonder what's wrong with you. https://imgur.com/a/MOlau0V
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its all about money and taxes. Let's start with a labour budget of $300,000 to hire a lead programmer or other critical person. France: 41.35% of the gross salary is paid to the Government in payroll taxes, leaving $175,938 paid as income to the employee. After income taxes, $90,167 is left for the employee to spend. That employee then wants to spend their entire salary on flat-screen TVs? They have an effective spen…
> much more if they are married to a zero-income spouse In France it's the same, but here's a major difference once you add kids to the equation: Each kid of a couple counts the same as "0.5 zero-income spouse", up to 3 kids. After the 3rd kid (or if the kid has handicap), they count the same as "1 full zero-income spouse" So for a couple with one spouse with a salary of X , one spouse without job, and 2 kids, the ta…
And that's why income taxes revenue pale in comparison with payrol taxes. Presidential candidates can claim to lower those every time they want better polls because they know it is not where the money is coming from.
2017:
- income taxes = 78 billions
- business taxes = 60 billions
- VAT = 203 billions
- social security = 480 billionsEarlier quoted context omitted.
>I think the biggest challenge for France in regard to startup is that society is hierarchical Agreed. At this point, I usually like to point out that hierarchical societies have their advantages. A huge asset for France is it's elite schools -- the "Grandes Écoles". These schools are outstanding in a way that few Americans can even fathom, and their students are educated to a point that I didn't think possible until…
I have mixed feelings about the grandes ecoles. Brilliant people get there and you don’t get in and out without serious grit, a decent mind and a taste for effort. But I tink that’s really what it is. The best engineers I have seen didn’t care for ‘burning’ years of their life in half military schools or old institutions, they went directly to CS courses to get a diploma faster and go abroad or start their own projec…
To be fair, so do I, and I think you make a good point. The profile you can expect from a GE is:
- Extremely well-learned. They know a lot of stuff.
- Solutions implemented by GE engineeres will be principled, rather than ad-hoc.
- Not self-starters. They very much have an employee mindset.
And to be faire, there are plenty of outstanding employees (not to mention freelancers or entrepreneurs) who haven't gone through a Grande École.
Let me put it another way: you may not need a GE-graduate to build the next iPod, but you certainly need them for the next EuroTunnel.
I am French, moved to the UK a few years ago. There are many cultural issues that will prevent France from ever becoming a startup nation. One of them is the fact that there's this idea floating around where you have to have higher education (Bac +5, aka 5 years of uni) to do anything even remotely related to IT, as if it was some kind of rocket science (where a degree would actually help). In fact, the first thing m…