"If Hewlett and Packard tried running an electronics company out of their garage in Switzerland, the old lady next door would report them to the municipal authorities."
http://www.paulgraham.com/america.html
(I guess, PG visited Switzerland, while he was an exchange student in Italy.)
"The problem in more traditional places like Europe [...] is the attitude they reflect: that an employee is a kind of servant, whom the employer has a duty to protect. It used to be that way in America too. In 1970 you were still supposed to get a job with a big company, for whom ideally you'd work your whole career. In return the company would take care of you: they'd try not to fire you, cover your medical expenses, and support you in old age.
Gradually employment has been shedding such paternalistic overtones and becoming simply an economic exchange. But the importance of the new model is not just that it makes it easier for startups to grow. More important, I think, is that it it makes it easier for people to start startups."
A major manager of T-Mobile in Germany was in the news when he pointed out what PG is talking about. "Generation Y" in Germany prefers to work for BMW until they retire instead of starting something on their own. According to this manager, Germany is stagnating. We're neither cheaper than China nor more innovative than the US, because young people don't and don't have to take risks. (http://huffingtonpost.de/2014/08/11/thomas-sattelberger-gene...)
I guess that for a Scandinavian or a Swiss guy, working 60 hours a week, and not being able to see their kids grow up, would be a personal failure. No matter how many sport cars he owns.
I have a baseball bat. I can make you bleed innovation.
And when you can't take it literally, you're missing something significant in the claim.
